Enveloping Darkness
by FandomsEverywhereUnite
Summary: Yuu and his team have been ordered to assassinate Krul Tepes and every other vampire in the city that might stand in their way. Yuu agrees eagerly, but how will he react when their mission turns from bad to worse, and when he knows that it was his fault?
1. Chapter 1

Yuu was late, so very very late. _Crap_ Yuu thought, _Guren is going to kill me._ He thought of all of the ways that Guren would prolong his death. _It will be slow, slow and painful. He'll bleed me dry and sell me to the vampires, I just know it._ Actually, that was way off the mark, Guren would never do anything that would assist those blood-suckers.

It didn't matter now, he realized as he rounded a corner to Guren's office. He stopped in his tracks and immediately did a 180. Of course, he had to choose right now to take a wrong turn, how many times had he been to Guren's office? He also took this time to realize that he had forgotten one of his shoes or one of his shoes had fallen off while he was running.

With luck, Shinya would be there to lighten the punishment, Guren was always calmer around Shinya. There was nothing that could make Guren's eyes burn with hatred and malice while he was around Shinya.

 _Thank God,_ Yuu thought as he rounded a corner and saw a singular black shoe on the floor. He maneuvered the shoe so that it was at least upright and jammed his foot into it, not thinking twice. The shoe was falling off of his foot, he could feel it, slowly slipping off, but he paid it no attention.

He barged into Guren's office-the right office this time-and was immediately confronted by the stares of five people _Shinya isn't there,_ he noted somewhat reluctantly. He took the time to look around the room, Kimizuki was leaning in the corner, so stereotypical of him, being anti-social right off the bat. Yoichi stood next to him, and he stood as if he had just been talking to Kimizuki until Yuu had barged in. Shinoa sat cross-legged on the floor, with a dozing Mitsuba curled up on her lap. Worst of all, however, was the man with violet eyes staring incredulously right into the depths of his soul.

"Sorry, Guren." Yuu said reluctantly, "I was a little side-tracked on the way here and I may or may not have overslept." He figured the last was quite obvious as it looked like he had just had sex, which he hadn't of course, but he certainly moved around enough in his sleep to give the impression that he had. And this was often pointed out by the children who would share a bed with him back in the vampire city.

"And what, do tell, got you side-tracked so that you would be this late to our _Top Secret and Mandatory Meeting_?" Guren asked, with no mercy in his eyes. His eyes never broke contact with Yuu's, but Yuu could tell he was taking in every single part of his appearance. Yuu tried to nonchalantly hide the half-on-half-off shoe behind his left leg and fix it without Guren noticing, which was infact useless and pointless as it only brought attention to the foot in question. "And you even came here in less than complete uniform? What is wrong with you?"

"See, now that's the funny part," Yuu started to explain, "You see, when I was running to your office, I guess I hadn't fully put on my shoe and well, it kinda fell off, then I took a wrong turn on the way here. So that and oversleeping is the main reason why I'm late." He tried to pass it all off as no big deal with one of his amazing smiles that could make anyone else smile, well almost anyone. He had yet to see it work on Kimizuki or Guren. And it didn't work this time either if anything it made him frown even harder.

But just at that moment, the door burst open again to admit a slightly more ruffled Shinya, who also apologized for being late, later than Yuu, infact. His hair was tousled like he had just woken up, and his shoes were untied as well. It didn't seem like he had tried as hard to look presentable, but then again, he did have a higher position so maybe he didn't have to try as hard.

Guren stared at the man standing in his doorway, leaning down on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Something in his eyes seemed to soften when he looked at Shinya, and a slight pinkness appeared on his cheeks. "And why are _you_ late, may I ask?" Guren asked, but with less malice than he had for Yuu.

Shinya looked up at him and smiled, "Do you really want me to answer that with them in the room?" Shinya's face was red at this point too, but if it was from running or blushing, Yuu didn't know. "After all, it is primarily _your_ fault, and I don't want to see you brought down in front of your squad."

Guren turned away at this point and walked back to his chair, which was positioned away from his desk, maybe when he sat in it he liked the dramatic effect that happened when someone entered your office and you could spin in the chair to greet them. However, he seemed to compose himself before he turned around.

Meanwhile in the corner, Shinoa had woken up a groggy Mitsuba, but nevertheless, the girls were both laughing at the exchange that had just happened between the two men. Kimizuki looked bored with life, but that was no different than usual. And Yoichi had turned red in the ears, and mouth agape. Yuu didn't understand what had transpired between Guren and Shinya that would bring that reaction from him, so it surprised him.

Guren spun his chair so that he could address them all properly, and when he did, he was as composed as he had been when Yuu first met him. Guren intertwined his fingers and peered over them, staring at each individual in turn. "So, now that we are all here, _finally_ might I add, we can get back to what we actually came here to do." He reached down with one hand to open a drawer and bring out a manilla folder. "We have reason to believe that the vampire city is the weakest right now than it has been in awhile. Many of the nobles have left the city on different orders and only a few remain, however they are extremely powerful."

Guren let the contents of the folder spill out onto his desk and gestured for the rest of the group to gather around. Yuu could see several graphic pictures of various children in white and black outfits being led by a man in a white cloak with no hood. _A noble_ Yuu thought, _I wonder how high he's ranked,_ he couldn't see this guy being able to take him down, but Yuu had learned not to judge based on appearances.

One of the pictures caught his eye though, even though the pictures were all in black and white, he could still see the light purple hue to the long hair on that ugly person. The person was smiling, showing off his two perfectly white, sharp fangs. Even though Yuu knew it was just a picture, his desire to rip Ferid's head from his shoulders was suddenly revived.

He could tell that Ferid's cloak was white and pristine, just like his uniform, but Yuu couldn't help but see the man drenched in blood. The blood of Akane and the blood of Mika. He was suddenly brought back to that night, the white room only amplified the darkness of the life that was seeping from his family's bodies. The horrible red color staining their clothes, and the looks on their faces.

Their faces were filled with despair, shock, and pain. Their eyes were staring lifelessly back at him, trying to tell him something, trying to tell Yuu that they would be safe if it wasn't for him. But worst of all was Mika. Mika was supposed to be smiling, with his beautiful eyes crinkled around the edges just slightly. There was supposed to be a light in them. Instead, there was a dullness that could only come from despair and failing. His wonderful face had been violated by the blood that streamed down from his mouth.

"Yuu. Are you listening to me? Oi! Yuu!" Kimizuki promptly slapped Yuu on the back of the head. "Oi! when someone's talking to you, you should at least make it look like you're listening, "Kimiziki said, disapproval shining through his features. Yoichi stood slightly behind Kimizuki, with worry written on his face. Yuu clenched his hands at his side as tight as he possibly could, any tighter and he was sure he would draw blood.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. What were you just saying?" Yuu pried his eyes away from the picture of the man who had taken his life from him. If ripping the picture would do anything to harm the blood-sucker, Yuu would not hesitate to shred it.

Kimizuki let out a long and hard sigh, "It wasn't _me_ who was talking to you, it was _Guren_ , who else would want to try and get something through your thick skull." Kimizuki glared at him, but Yuu had become accustomed to it and promptly ignored it.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely ignored by _someone_ ," Guren started again. "The city is as vulnerable as it has been it awhile. With this in mind, the Hiiragi's have assigned us the job of infiltrating and assassinating the main nobles that have chosen to reside there for the time being. Now, why this job falls to us, I have no clue, our only real member with assassination skills being Yoichi, but besides that, Shinya has volunteered to assist us on this suicide mission.

"We have one goal, to kill Krul Tepes and any others who side with her, so basically, we are to kill any and every vampire that we can, with Krul our top priority. We will most likely die, but we _need_ to take her down with us. Understood?" He made eye contact with each and every one of them gathered in his office, each one nodding in understanding until he reached Yuu.

"Hah! I could kill them all on my own, just sending me would be enough. There's no way that they could kill me. I've gotten much stronger in the four years that they failed to kill me." Yuu proclaimed happily, although, despite his cocky attitude, he was worried that even the seven of them wouldn't be able to take the queen down.

Mika crouched in a corner, his breath quickly being exhaled in short puffs, creating white puffs that drifted ever upward. He gripped his chest as tight as possible, the pain was consuming him. His whole body seemed to be freezing, but his blood was fire that pumped through his veins. It was unbearable.

But Mika pushed through it, he _needed_ to push through it. There was no way that he was ever going to become like the _others_. The others who needed the blood but drank even when they weren't hungry. He needed to calm down. He slowly and carefully forced himself to take in more cold air through his nose, and expel it through his mouth, creating more and more fog.

When he finally composed himself enough, he reached into his pouch on his side and pulled out his last vial of Krul's blood. He looked at the liquid and sloshed it around in the vial, hating what it was and hating that he needed it. Closing his eyes and undoing the top, he downed the metallic liquid in one gulp.

Then he left for the throne room, as much as it pained him to do so, he needed to do it, he needed to get more of Krul's blood. He hated himself for needing it, but he hated himself even more for _wanting_ it.


	2. Chapter 2

Mika slowly walked to the room that his needs resided in, the room he hated most of all. However, he was greeted by someone who he _definitely_ did not need in his life. "Miiiiiiiiiiikaaaaaaa-kuuuuuuuuuun. Oh Miiiiiiiikaaa-kuuuun." Groaning inwardly, Mika turned to the sound of the voice that haunted his very existence. There, peeking out from behind one of the straight white pillars was the very bane of his existence. Ferid Bathory, smiling like he always was, pompously approached Mika and placed his right arm across the blond's shoulder.

 _Why does he always have to be like this?_ Mika thought, _Always so clingy and pompous, he needs to be more careful around me when I'm in a mood like this_ , Mika glared up at the taller man with silver hair, sneering as he made eye contact. "Go away Ferid, I really don't want to bother with you right now."

Ferid frowned down at the beautiful blue eyes that stared back at him. He released Mika from his loose grip on him, only to place his hands on his heart for emphasis. "Mika-kun I am hurt that you would ever say such things about me." He feigned shock and betrayal. "Why I never thought you thought these things about me. My dear, dear Mika-kun. Why, oh why would you keep this from me? Don't you know what it will do to our beautiful relationship?"

"With luck, ruin it." Mika said under his breath, which of course was plenty loud enough for Ferid to hear him, but he kept up the charade, nonetheless. As Ferid continued to act heartbroken, Mika pushed past him to head to the throne room. However, he was stopped by Ferid's hand on his wrist.

"Where do you think you're going, Mika-kun?" Ferid suddenly asked him in a low voice, almost seductive. Ferid licked his fangs and lips as he stared into the bright blue abyss that was Mika's eyes.

"To the throne room, where else? It's not like I came all the way over here to see you." With this, Mika tried to pull his wrist from the grip that Ferid had. However, he found the strong hand was unmoving and as strong as concrete. "Ferid, what are you doing? Let go of me."

"Awww. Now, tell me, why would I do that? You're like a bird out of a cage, Mika-kun. You're so very pretty and I can appreciate your beauty properly. But, what will a bird do if you let them go? Without a chain or some sort of restraint, that bird, no matter how well you treat it, will inevitably fly away, never to be seen by you again."

Ferid smiled his sinister smile at the distress written all across Mika's face. Mika was terrified, but he could never let Ferid know that. Ferid leaned in, placing his mouth right above the side of Mika's neck. He inhaled deeply, taking in as much of Mika's scent as possible. Smiling, Ferid released his grip on Mika's wrist.

"And you, my dear, dear Mika-kun, are a very beautiful bird." Ferid mused as he walked away from him.

"Dismissed!"

 _Finally_ Yuu thought as he was finally released from Guren's office. _I_ though _we were gonna be in there forever, with all of Guren's scheming, and Shinoa's comments, and even Shinya's input._ The meeting had taken over two hours, most of which Yuu had paid no mind to, as it was all scheduling, scheming, and strategies. The three S-words that he had no experience in, okay, maybe scheming, but it was all minor scale.

Kimizuki had headed toward the medical ward, where his sister, Mirai was, and it appeared Yoichi was tagging along. Yoichi was walking a little closer to Kimizuki as was usually allowed, but Kimizuki paid it no mind. From his body language, Yuu could tell that Mirai had had a bad day yesterday. Yuu was glad Yoichi was with him, Kimizuki looked like he would need it on today's visit.

Shinoa and Mitsuba left the opposite way, Mitsuba draped over Shinoa, practically making the light-purple-haired girl collapse under her weight. However, Shinoa didn't seem to mind even if it looked like Mitsu was crushing her small frame. To Yuu, it looked like Mitsu might have even fallen asleep on Shinoa. He smiled as they both walked further away from him.

As for Shinya and Guren, they stayed behind in Guren's office, alone. Yuu figured they were going to try and plot some other ways to try and sneak into the vampire city, or maybe make sure he didn't sneak off to try and kill the blood-suckers himself.

He walked straight off in the direction of his dorm, maybe he could get some extra sleep because he _clearly_ didn't get enough sleep last night. Well, no one was gonna stop him from sleeping, so why would it matter if he did?

Yoichi probably wasn't wanted, why did he tag along with Kimizuki in the first place? He was just standing in the corner while he and Mirai talked. Maybe he should just leave and pretend like he was never there.

"Who's that in the corner?" Yoichi had turned to leave when he heard Mirai's voice, it was frail and weak, but it was also quiet and sweet. "Is that Yoichi? It is! Why didn't you tell me that you were here, Yoichi?" She hadn't moved at all from where she was on her bed, but somehow she had known. How? Kimizuki must have told her.

"Oh, I-I thought it was gonna be awkward or something like that." Yoichi stuttered. He could feel the tips of his ears turning red, and he was glad that she couldn't see him.

Mirai's laugh sounded like the tinkling of bells, and Yoichi could feel himself turning even redder, "Hey, big brother, pull up a chair next to you, so that we can all see each other."

Kimizuki complied, getting up to grab a chair from behind him and placed it directly next to his chair. Yoichi slowly approached the vacant chair next to Kimizuki and cautiously approached it as if the pink haired man was suddenly going to snatch the chair away. He had tilted Mirai's head to the side so that it was more comfortable to look at her brother and his friend.

Mirai was smiling, it was something that he never expected to see, but he saw it every single time he came with Kimizuki. She smiled up at him and watched him as he sat down. Her right hand was in both of her elder brother's, it looked so small and weak inside both of Kimizuki's massive hands.

The pink haired boy was pointedly not looking at Yoichi, he was simply looking at his little sister's face and her eyes. Yoichi could tell that she was tired, he could see it in her eyes, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Why did you think it was gonna be awkward? I don't mind, and big brother let you tag along, so he clearly doesn't mind, I don't get many visitors other than him and the doctors, well they can't really be considered visitors though. It always makes me happy to see other people." Mirai asked him.

"Well, I-I don't know, but you two seemed really comfortable and I didn't want to interrupt anything."

Mirai's laughter filled the room once again, "You wouldn't be interrupting anything, literally, just about all big brother talks about is Yuuichirou and how much of an idiot he is. When he talks about anything else it's more about the mission that he just went on. Nothing really exciting happens in here, so I enjoy listening to what he says and I feel like I get to see a little bit of the outside world. So, tell me, what's it like to work on missions with big brother?"

Yoichi couldn't resist her pleading eyes, so he started the story of how amazing Kimizuki was to work with, and all of the times that he had saved him and the rest of the team. He even exaggerated a little bit, it looked like Kimizuki needed to hear it.

Shinoa was out of breath by the time she reached her dorm. Mitsu didn't look like much, she definitely didn't look heavy, but right now, she was simply 97 pounds of dead weight. There was also the body heat radiating from her body. It was horrible, today was not the coolest of days, and she was wearing black.

She was drenched in sweat and her clothes stuck to her skin in the most uncomfortable of ways. Finally, she reached her dorm and opened the door. There was no way that she was going to take Mitsu all the way back to _her_ dorm like this. Shinoa made her way to the single bed and unceremoniously dropped the blonde onto it.

Mitsuba didn't seem to mind in the slightest, she still slept sound and Shinoa figured that she probably didn't sleep again last night. That had become more and more common in the last couple of weeks, ever since they got the new members. She remembered how Mitsu used to act, before the accident. She still carried the guilt of his life in her heart and that would never change, no matter what would happen. She had been exactly like Yuu.

Shinoa moved the blonde girl's limbs so that it looked more comfortable, and she probably wouldn't cramp. She sat by the girl's side, watching her sleep. This was her favorite time when it was her turn to keep watch and everyone else was asleep. She could see them for what they were with no worries at the time. Mitsuba's face was her favorite to watch when she slept. It was her favorite, she was always worrying about something or another when she was awake and it showed on her face. But when she was asleep, her face showed no worry whatsoever.

She watched as Mitsu's face suddenly shifted from the worryless face that she adored so much to a face crinkled in pain and remembrance. Shinoa's heart panged at the sight of Mitsuba having a nightmare. She wanted to make it better, to erase all of the unease that Mitsuba felt.

Moving Mitsuba over, she made room for herself, it was _her_ bed after all. She gently wrapped her arms around the blonde, and hugged her close to her chest. "Shhhhh." Shinoa whispered to her, "I'm here, Mitsu. It's okay, nothing is going to happen to you while I'm around you. I promise." She kissed the top of Mitsuba's head and whispered once more, "I promise."

Shinya and Guren were alone in Guren's office. _At last_ , Shinya thought. He smiled to Guren in a way that was sure to relieve any tension, even if Shinya himself couldn't feel any.

They each moved closer to each other, Guren coming out from behind his desk. "You know, you can't really be late like this again," Guren said to the silver-haired man. "No matter what or _who_ held you back."

"Well, I still think being late is plenty of a sacrifice for something. You see, it's all a matter of priorities, you need to sacrifice somethings to advance in other things." Shinya closed the gap between him and the other man, pulling him into a loose embrace. "I've chosen to sacrifice certain things like my punctuality for other things, like last night."

Guren smiled at the silver-haired man, leaning forward and touching their foreheads together. "In that case, you should put your priorities where your mouth is."

"Gladly." Came the response. And then Shinya simply tilted his head slightly back and made their mouths meet in a soft kiss. Guren kissed back, but only slightly. "Oh, come on now, is that how you kiss your superior? I know for a fact that that's not all you have in you."

Guren smiled and gripped the back of Shinya's head, pressing their lips together and slowly prodding his tongue into the other's mouth. _This is what it's like to love someone_ , Shinya thought, _to want them above everyone and anyone else._


	3. Chapter 3

Kimizuki and Yoichi left Mirai's room, granting her some much needed sleep. Kimizuki hadn't said much after Yoichi had joined him and Mirai, but he had kept up his stern facade. As Yoichi turned right for them to part ways, Kimizuki grabbed his wrist to take him left.

"Hey, hey, Kimizuki, where are you taking me? My dorm is that way, you know." Yoichi exclaimed, but he then went willingly with the taller boy. He followed the twists and turns that Kimizuki took him around, followed down dark corridors and bright, open spaces, away from the dorms, away from the medical ward, and away from other people that were out and about.

Finally, Kimizuki brought him to a dark corner, under the stairs of an abandoned wing. There was a chair that had been set up at a table with a candle on top of it directly under the sixth step. In the darkest possible place here. Yoichi stood in silent confusion as Kimizuki took a chair from another room and placed it right next to the chair that was already there.

Yoichi assumed that the new chair was for him, so he promptly sat down and was joined by Kimizuki next to him. They sat in silence for a while, just like that, it wasn't an awkward silence either, it was comfortable and pleasant. Kimizuki had removed his glasses and he sat there with his fingers entwined together and his head resting on them.

Yoichi assumed a position with his left arm extended and bent back on itself, creating a sort of pillow for his head. He simply stared up at the other man, and after a little while, he could already feel the tendrils of sleep reaching through his subconscious, pulling him through to their depths. He fought them off by biting the inside of his cheek, not wanting Kimizuki to notice.

Just then, he noticed a drop of water fall from Kimizuki's hands, and then another, and another. It was then that Yoichi realized he was crying. His shoulders began to shake and the droplets seemed to fall faster and faster, a sob escaped from the trembling body next to him. Before long, Kimizuki appeared to be a train wreck, Yoichi thought he had tried to speak to him, but it had only resulted in more and more tears and sobbing.

Yoichi stood up, knocking down the wooden chair that Kimizuki had obtained for him, and he grabbed the pink-haired man's shoulders. He pulled him up to his full height and let him sob onto his shoulder. No words were said, and none were needed. Eventually, Kimizuki's legs gave in to the weight of whatever he was carrying and they each slid down the stone wall, Kimizuki gripping the shirt of the smaller man. Yoichi, wrapping his arms around the taller man's shoulders, not caring that his shirt was getting soaked.

After a half hour of this, it appeared that Kimizuki had exhausted all of his tears onto Yoichi, and Yoichi had taken them all, without question or need, he ran his fingers through the short hair of the taller man in an effort to calm him. It seemed to have worked as he stopped shaking a while before, but he still continued to do so, he liked the way the pink hair felt between his fingers, it was softer than it looked.

Kimizuki straightened himself, still breathing heavily, his eyes were red and puffy. Yoichi smiled briefly he looked different and odd without his glasses, almost, dare he think it, cute.

"Th-thanks, Yoichi, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you anything at all. I-I just needed to-to, I needed to do that. I'm so, so sorry. And-and then when you were, when you were in there when you were in there and talking to Mirai, you said-you said all of those things that I know aren't true about me. And I know that I'm being really, extremely selfish here, but I just needed to-I needed to do _something_ , I needed to let _someone_ in, someone who wouldn't laugh at me, someone who wouldn't say anything, someone who would care. And, you-you were just there, and I saw your eyes lightened up when you talked to Mirai about me, and I couldn't let Mirai see me like this." Kimizuki spilled everything, words tumbling over each other, hardly stopping to correct his mistakes in articulation. "I come to this little corner after just about every visit to Mirai. She means the world to me and I love her with all my heart, but after every single time, I just-there's just something that I feel, and I hate myself for it."

Yoichi grabbed each of the larger man's hands in his own, they didn't even come close to fully encompassing the more calloused hands. He listened to everything that Kimizuki said, he listened to everything. The muscled man shuddered and shook at every sentence. He never made eye contact with Yoichi, but Yoichi watched his every move. It hurt his heart to see Kimizuki like this, it hurt every fiber of his body to see anyone he cared about in pain.

"I feel so powerless because she just gets worse and worse with every single visit, you saw how she could barely move this time. Last time she wouldn't wake, and she has nightmares every single time she sleeps, the doctors tell me. She would never tell me. She's just so amazing and full of hope, and I know that she's going to get even worse, every time I go there. But then she smiles at me like nothing is wrong. She smiles and I know it's fake, but even so, I ignore it. I ignore it and I hate myself for it."

Suddenly, Yoichi saw something that made his blood run cold. There, on Kimizuki's wrists, far enough back that no one would notice if he was in full uniform, was a dark red spot. He immediately pulled up the sleeves of Kimizuki's jacket to reveal burns. They had started to blister and Yoichi suspected them to be second-degree. "What is this?!" He demanded.

Kimizuki's eyes widened and he tried to jerk his hands away, but Yoichi had a grip far beyond what he was used to. "It's-it's nothing that you need to worry about, I-I burned myself while I was cooking the other day."

Yoichi detected the lie immediately. He looked at Kimizuki with hurt in his eyes. "No, you didn't. You did this to yourself, didn't you? Why? Why didn't you tell me?"

Kimizuki couldn't meet his eyes, he couldn't see the eyes that pleaded with him to tell him what was happening. There was guilt in Yoichi's eyes, guilt, and sadness. Kimizuki felt horrible all over again. Now he had brought Yoichi into his own mess. He had brought Yoichi into something that he couldn't control. Now he had something else to worry about, someone else to worry over.

"Please, please tell me. I don't want you to hurt anymore. Tell me." Yoichi pleaded. "Tell me, I don't want to see anyone else I care about suffer. I beg of you." Yoichi gently placed his fingers on the burns, feeling the heat radiate from them. "I'm going to help you now. I promise you're not allowed to move from this spot." Yoichi left then, running through the twists and turns.

He grabbed cool water and ice, placing them together, and he grabbed several burn ointments, placing them all together in a bin. He grabbed gauze and towels. Trying to remember the way back, he ran through the corridors that Kimizuki had pulled him through, after three wrong turns, he eventually reached the abandoned stairwell that he should still be behind.

Yoichi's heart swelled with relief when he saw that he was still there. He placed the supplies on the table, spilling its contents somewhat. He gathered the water, ice, and a towel, placing the towel open and putting several chunks of ice in the center. He then dampened the towel and met the corners together, keeping the ice in the center.

"Now take off your jacket," Yoichi commanded, holding the towel in his hand and staring at Kimizuki expectantly.

"Why?"

"Because then I can see the burns better and clean them."

"No, why are you helping me? They're just little burns."

"No, they're not. Those are second-degree burns. Now take off your jacket."

Kimizuki complied, removing the black jacket to reveal his bare skin underneath. Yoichi gasped as he saw the extent of his burns, they started at the wrist and made their way up his forearms and they were even creeping up to his chest.

"Kimizuki, why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell anyone?" Yoichi started dabbing at the burns on his right arm. "Do they still hurt?" Yoichi asked cautiously.

"Yeah, they still hurt, the ones up here are the most recent." He gestured to his upper arm, which displayed burns that were definitely much more recent than the others. As Yoichi made his way up his arm, reaching the most recent of burns, he flinched.

"Crap, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. Why, did you start doing this, Kimizuki?" He continued to try and administer as best he could with the supplies he had gathered.

"A couple years ago," Kimizuki started, "There was a time when I was told to kill Mirai so that we could move more freely and so that we would be safer. Mirai herself suggested this because she could tell that it was difficult trying to keep her safe like I was. A few of the guys I hung out with at the time also agreed that that was what we needed to do. I refused, obviously." He went through the entire spiel of his tragic backstory, explaining that he just couldn't kill his sister, or leave her there to die and it made it all the more difficult because she was trying to get him to do it. "There was one night, and I had been watching her sleep when she woke up. And she had a hardness in her eyes that hadn't been there before. She started yelling at me as loud as she could make her voice in her state. Saying things like, 'Can't you tell I'm not happy this way.' 'Why do you still try to save me, I am now and always will be dead weight to you.' 'You're just being selfish, you're only keeping me around to save yourself the guilt.' She said many other things but the gist was simple, leave me here and save yourself.

"I was incredibly hurt by what she had said and I left her room for the night, but some of the things that she had told me stuck with me. That I was keeping her alive against her will and because of that, she was suffering. So I took a blade and I drew it across my skin, biting down on a shirt that I had discarded to keep from screaming. Then, there was blood, there was blood gushing from the wound that I had put on my wrist. I panicked, My vision started to swim from the pain and all I could think about was trying to stop the bleeding. Blood would attract vampires and vampires would attract death. So the same blade that I used to open my wrist, I heated, watching the metal blacken slowly. Then I placed the blade against my wound, cauterizing it, stopping the bleeding, but leaving the smell of burned flesh behind. I had to find water, cool water that would stop this new pain. I found it and that was the end of that wound, but I knew that I couldn't slice open my skin again, I needed bandages for that. But burns, burns were easily hidden and all I needed was water. And deep down inside, I realized that I needed the pain, I needed the pain to remind me that it was my fault and that I deserved it for what I was doing and what I had done."

"You will not hurt yourself anymore," Yoichi said after several minutes of silence. "You will not burn your skin so that it blisters, you will not drag blades across your skin. You will swear that you will cause your body no more harm than it has already endured. If you ever feel like you need to remember what your body looks like with the skin burned off and these blisters appearing on your skin. You do not need this pain. You need to remember your sister's smiling face. You need to remember what it would be like to see her see what you've done to yourself. You need to remember me and what I will do. Remember me, because I don't know what I would do if I were to lose you. Please, remember me. Remember me and come to me whenever you need me. Please, I beg of you, come to me and not a flame. Come to Mirai and not a blade. Just promise me that you will not ever do this to yourself again."

Yoichi had wrapped his arms around the man that was with him, gently, and avoiding the burns, until the pink haired man finally whispered, "I promise."

Mitsuba awoke to her face being pressed into the bosom of another woman. _What is this? It's warm and kinda nice._ She snuggled deeper into the comfort that had joined her. The warmth that was beside her made her feel _something_ but she wasn't sure what that something was quite yet.

Whether it was nice or not, it was starting to get a little too hot and close for comfort for her. She disentangled the limbs of the woman sleeping next to her, and that was when she realized she had been sweating. But this wasn't the sweat that came from being hot. This was the kind of sweating that came from nightmares.

Taking a look around the room, she realized that the sleeping form had been Shinoa and that this was her room. Looking a little more closely, she could see a wet towel by the bedside. As she approached the towel and picked it up, she could tell that it stunk of sweat.

Shinoa took her attention away from the towel and everything else in the room when she moved. Mitsuba was never really one to watch someone sleep, but Shinoa was different, it was the one time that she felt safe from all forms of harassment from her dear squad leader. Her face was lax and peaceful, she wasn't at all trying to come up with new insults for them. Well, knowing Shinoa, that's something that she might actually dream about.

Mitsuba took a seat on the side of the bed and watched the sleeping form. She pushed a few strands of hair out of the other's face. Appreciating the pristine slackness of her face in all of its glory. She wondered what she was dreaming about and why she was in _Shinoa's_ room and not her own.

Then she remembered her dream. She'd had _that_ dream again. The dream where she failed. She failed at being a soldier. She broke protocol and because of that, _he_ died. She could feel tears starting to form at the edges of her eyes. _No, I will not cry. I swear that I won't cry ever again. I. Will. Not. Cry._ She told herself vehemently.

Shinoa seemed to toss and turn in her sleep, maybe disturbed by the girl that sat over her, playing with her hair. _Why am I in her room anyways?_ She thought to herself.

Shinoa's room was slightly more extravagant than her own, slightly larger with a bigger bed. She had far more room in her closet and a larger desk, which had a single bound book on it. The book was brown and had a black ribbon that wrapped around the side that would open. It was quite an odd color choice, but then again, it was Shinoa and you couldn't associate her with modern logic.

The book seemed to call Mitsuba from where she was on the bed. Glancing back at Shinoa's sleeping form, she whispered to her and poked and prodded at her body. Once she was sure she was in a deep sleep, she slowly made her way to where the book was. In big, black, faded letters, it read **日記帳**. Wait, was she serious? Shinoa kept a diary? She was sure to find some great blackmail in here. Slowly, she unwrapped the diary and opened to the first entry that was there. She felt a pang of guilt that she was doing this, but there would be no harm done anyways, right?

 **December 25, 2011, Entry One,**

 **I am so very hapy. Papa got me this book for my birtday! Now i haf a book just lik big sis! Im six now isnt that sooooooo exiting? Ther ar a lot more giffs fur me to open now. So by!**

Mitsuba looked at the cute handwriting that littered the first page. There were many misspellings, but Shinoa was six, it's amazing that she was able to do that much. There were several other entries that all meant nothing to her or the blackmail that she wanted. But then, about one year later, there was an entry with most of the date smudged out.

 **[Smudged writing], 2012, Entry 89,**

 **Something hapened and I dont know what. A lot of the peopl I used to see arent around anymor. They all just colapsed. They started cofing and cofing and blod came out of their moths. Its all the grown ups to. The kids I wood play with are all alone now. Theyr all crying. [Smudged writing] but Papa wants me to stay away from them. When big sis ran away she said something about [Smudged writing] and Papa yeled at her. Maybe this is what she was taking about. But [Smudged writing] she looked at me with hate. Did she look at big brother like that to? Papas yeling at me again now I need to go.**

Mitsuba's heart stilled. This was the day that it all went wrong. This was an entry from the day that the apocalypse virus took the lives of everyone. Of everyone who was over the age of thirteen. Flipping through more pages, she found the entry from the day that she and Mitsuba had joined squads, it was one of the last entries in the book.

 **Oh crap, I don't even remember the date today, Entry Four-hundred and seven,**

 **Finally, Mitsu and I have finally joined squads. Today is awesome and truly amazing. I love her beautiful blonde hair and how it blows in the wind. Her personality is something to marvel at as well. How many times did she yell at Yuu today? I have no clue but it was adorable, seeing her worked up over everything he did against her will. Honestly, Mitsu is so adorable, well, she has the most beautiful smile, I wish that she would move it more often.-**

Suddenly feeling very sick, Mitsuba immediately closed the diary, feeling like if she went any further, she would find out more about Shinoa than the girl herself wanted to, blackmail or no.

She looked back at the girl that was always smiling, provoking, and antagonizing her. She still slept peacefully, unknowing that Mitsuba had peered into what she wrote as a child and what she wrote right now.

She needed to leave now, even if Shinoa didn't know that she had looked through her stuff, _she_ knew. She felt dirty, like an intruder. A burglar, someone who stole away into someone's life and stole the most valuable thing in their possession. She didn't want Shinoa to know that she looked into her diary, there was no way that she was ever going to let her know.

Quickly composing herself, she walked over to Shinoa's sleeping form, and placed a quick peck on her left cheek, feeling a blush rise to her cheeks. Running out of her room, she didn't notice Shinoa's eyes crack open just the slightest and a small smile appeared on her face.

Shinya continued to explore Guren's mouth. He couldn't remember how many times he had felt this tooth or how many times he had passed his tongue across the other man's tongue. It didn't matter, all that mattered at this point was the body that was oh, so close to his own. Breaking apart for a short while, so they could each catch their breath, Shinya stared into the purple eyes of his partner.

They both smiled, and Guren moved to sit down in his chair. Shinya smiled as he looked at the man who was normally his same height but was now quite short. _Short enough for something else_ , he thought. But immediately discarded that thought from his head, they were still in Guren's office, anyone could barge in and it would be really bad if he was found half-clothed.

So he settled on straddling the man, legs spread to either side of the other's and arms resting on shoulders. The chair was uncomfortable but comfortable at the same time, it caused his legs to be bent at an awkward angle, but it offered the best angle for everything that he wanted to do.

Shinya leaned in for yet another kiss, but this time, he submit to the black-haired man, letting him feel each and every tooth in his mouth and felt the sensation of everything that was Guren.

Guren started taking the initiative then, slowly unbuttoning Shinya's jacket, exposing the bare flesh of his chest. Guren removed his gloves, letting his bare fingers run free, tracing the veins of Shinya's chest. Finding muscles shift and move, following them to others. He traced pictures on the pale skin of Shinya, finding comfort in the warmth that emanated from his skin.

Shinya could feel Guren's chilled fingers trace various lines on his body that he couldn't see or feel until they were exposed by Guren. He could feel the paths that each and every finger left on his skin, he could feel every pattern that Guren exposed. Guren's fingers wandered to the small of his back, sending shivers down Shinya's spine.

His whole body shuddered and he arched his back, breaking the kiss to try and get more of the cold fingers that were running themselves up and down his spine. He felt them trace his shoulder blades, and reaching up and around, feeling the crevices between his collar bones.

Guren slowly placed his mouth below the ribcage of the white-haired man, following the muscles up the front of his body, gently. Guren was never rough with Shinya, he could never be rough with him. He stopped ascending the pale body when he reached the neck, he could feel the pulse that circulated life through Shinya. He could feel the warmth that radiated from his neck. He kept his mouth there for a while, slowly circling his tongue around the vital artery. Placing tiny kisses around it, making his way up to the mouth of the man whom he loved.

Shinya met him halfway, crashing his mouth into the black-haired man's, running his fingers through the mussed hair that he loved. The black hair that seemed to define his personality, it was black and soulless if you just looked at the exterior, but if you got a chance to appreciate it and feel it, it was soft and smooth.

No one would ever get to feel the soft side of Guren other than him, he swore. _I will never let him go_ , he thought to himself, _I promise._

The vampire city was always cold at night, especially when you were alone. Mikaela made his way to the building he had called 'home' ever since he had been turned. It was a lonely building that stood high but was in no way dignified. He opened the door that squeaked slightly on its hinges.

The squeak was like a scream in the silent night, it put every nerve in his body on edge. There was no one around and the night seemed to envelop him. He had never told any of the children in the orphanage, but he was afraid of the dark. Whenever he was abused, it was always in the dark.

He was stripped of all clothing and beaten with a whip, they always avoided the face and lower limbs. Those were hard to cover up, especially because Mika loved to wear short sleeves and shorts. His body still bore some of the scars that he 'earned'. His body had once born the bruises of boots that had dug into his skin, damaging the muscles.

In that time he had learned how to smile. He learned that if you couldn't smile when times were at their worst, you were never going to become strong. He needed to smile more, and laugh at despair. So that is what he did. And he made it so much of a habit that no one would ever see through his lie. He learned how to make it so convincing that no one would ever question his happiness. But after that night. After the night that everything was taken from him, he found he couldn't smile anymore. He couldn't make the muscles pull in that specific way to make a pleasant face.

He entered his empty home that smelled of musk and dust. He hated the room, but he would never change it. It was empty except for the essentials. Of the essentials that were there, he never used them. He could move at any point he wanted to, and then die of starvation soon afterward.

But he had been working on a solution to that. He made his way to a secluded bookshelf-something that had come with the house and opened the top cover of the top book of a specific stack-something that had not come with the house and grabbed the most dated vials of Krul's blood. He had been doing this for awhile. The blood never really went bad and vampires couldn't get sick, so if it did get bad, it didn't affect him. He placed the newest vials in the place opposite of the ones he had just removed. and smiled in satisfaction. He had close to one-hundred vials now.

He could make his grand escape anytime he wanted. But something held him back. _You don't deserve to run free._ Mika jumped at the sound, no one was in his house, he would be able to smell them if there was. He listened closely, there was no sound of breathing or anything otherwise, no heartbeat, nothing. Maybe he had imagined the voice. _Why do you get to run free and live while everyone else only grows cold?_

Mika spun at the sound of the voice, searching, searching for the voice. "Who's there?"

 _Come on now, Mika-_ kun _, don't you remember me? Don't you remember my voice?_

The voice was right, Mika did recognize it. He knew it, from _somewhere_.

 _Don't you remember us?_ The voice multiplied, there were more now, voices layered on top of each other. All speaking in unison. They all sounded familiar in the same way, from the same place. He turned several corners and there, there standing in the doorway of his home were people that he never thought he would see again.

"A-Akane." He reached his arm towards her and the other children, but they all ran, shying away from his touch. _You think we would want_ you _to touch us? You who now bear the fangs of the ones that hurt us. You who now take the form of one who_ killed _us. We hate you. We hate you for all that you are. There's a filth that covers you. You are no longer one of us._

Mika watched in horror as Akane pulled a whip out from her back. His vision blackened and all he could focus on was the whip and Akane. Akane and the whip. He could feel his chest tighten. A pain beginning in the center of his torso. He felt his breaths quicken and his breath became restricted, he wasn't going to make it much longer. He was going to pass out soon. His body had already become heavy and weighted, dragging him down to the floor, no matter how much he leaned on the wall.

Akane smiled as she unraveled the whip. Once it was at its full length, she brandished it between her hands. She drew back and struck with the whip. Once. Twice. Thrice. He felt an old pain re-awaken with each strike, growing more and more intense. He cried out, knowing that people could probably hear him, but no one would ever come for him, no one would ever come for a filthy half-blood.

After so many strikes that he couldn't feel anymore, she and the other orphans disappeared, leaving him a sobbing mess on the floor. Alone and in the dark.

Yuuichirou woke up from his 'short' nap knowing that he had overslept once more. He glanced around his room, which was surprisingly clean, no one ever expected it to be clean, but clean it always was, and clean it always will be. He made his way to his closet, which held the uniform that he was so proud of earning. Donning the outfit, correctly this time, he went out into the night, following the insistence of his growling stomach.

Once he reached the make-shift kitchen, he knew that he was going to end up setting fire to something, probably himself. He sighed heavily, knowing that as soon as there was smoke, there would be people to see him fail utterly at cooking, so instead, he stuck with the already prepared meals that the army provided. It tasted disgusting, but it was better than the embarrassment and the death that Guren would eventually administer, most likely personally.

Once he was finished, he quickly made his way back to his room, the chilled air making his breath go up in short puffs. But at the last second, he decided not to go into his room, instead, he kept on going. Making his way to a stairwell, he slowly ascended. When he finally arrived at his destination, he realized that he probably should have gone to his room for a blanket or something. The wind was stronger up here, as there was nothing to break its force before it buffered him.

On the roof, he laid down, spread eagle and stared up at the night sky. He had done this so many times in the past, but none of them had been very recent. He felt if he turned his head slightly to the right, he would see beautiful blue eyes staring at him. Almost wishing it were true, he looked to the right and actually emdid/em see beautiful blue eyes staring at him.

Yuu sighed deeply, "Bug off Asuramaru, I don't need you right now."

The image of Mika quickly morphed into the demon that he knew all too well. "Awe, but Yuuichirou, it's no fun if you don't play along a bit, and you just turned your head so perfectly that I couldn't help it."

"Yeah, well it is getting a little old, I can't play along if you make it so obvious, then it's just boring. Wait, crap if you're here, that means I fell asleep on the roof. Man, do you know how cold I'm gonna be?"

"It's not _my_ fault where you fall asleep and where you don't. I just use what is given to me, and I'm sorry, next time I won't make it so _obvious_.

Sighing, Yuu tried to rouse his body from sleep, _Why did I even fall asleep? I just woke up from quite a long nap, and I don't remember being particularly tired when I came up here, I just wanted to look at the stars like I used to with Mika._

Finally, he succeeded, rousing his body enough to open his eyes, his _real_ eyes and make his way back down to his room. Once there, he quickly covered himself in as many blankets as he could muster, trying to trap that body heat that was all escaping into the night.

He looked around his mostly barren room, there were his extra uniforms in the closet and some random clothes that he could throw on if he needed something a little more comfortable. There was the bed, that he was currently sitting on that wasn't the most comfortable of beds, but it was better than the cold hard ground.

And in the corner, there was a desk, and on that desk, there was a single item. There was a dark, wooden gun with gold decorations detailing the grip. It was the most useless thing in his room, he couldn't kill vampires with it, and Guren would kill him if he _ever_ tried to come near anyone with a gun and the intention to kill. Now it was purely a memento of the most harm he had ever caused Ferid. He was reminded of the one night that he had pulled the trigger, once more.

 _I promise, Mika. I promise that I will wipe out every single last blood-sucker for what they did to our lives. I will avenge everyone. And after that, I will see your smiling face again, not an illusion from Asuramaru, but the real you. I'll make you smile again._

 _I promise._


	4. Chapter 4

The seven people gathered in Guren's office at the earliest possible hours of the morning, the sky was still dark and there was no indication that it would rise anytime soon. Soon, after everyone was gathered, they made their way into the early hours of the morning. Huddling together for warmth, their breath mingling with each others so much that there were white vapors that rose ever upward in one steady stream. Each of them cupped their hands in front of their faces, breathing hot breath into them and releasing the captured air into the sky.

Parked right in front of them were two large cars. "We're going to need to split up. One person who knows how to drive in each car, and one person that can protect the car." Guren announced, his voice booming in the silence of the morning. "I'm going to drive one car, and I want Yuuichirou with me as well as Shinya. The rest of you can choose where you are willing to go, however, I want Kimizuki to drive."

Too tired to complain, Yuu made his way to Guren's car and took his place in the backseat, knowing that he most definitely was not going to be able to sit in the front. He laid down, spreading his entire body as far and as comfortably as he could to the edges of the seat. Shinya took his place in the passenger seat, and Guren took his place in the driver's.

Yuu could feel his eyes slowly getting heavier and heavier as the tendrils of sleep tugged at his consciousness. He didn't want to pass out from sleep, sleeping meant reliving that terrible night all over again, and twice in one day was a little too much for him.

 _Hey, Asuramaru?_

 _What is it?_

 _Can you do me a favor and NOT send me nightmares right now?_

 _I haven't sent you a nightmare in a fortnight at least._

 _What do you mean, I just had one._

 _That wasn't me, it was the_ other _part of you._

Yuu puzzled on these words, he had been having nightmares for the past week, all of the night that had taken his life from him. Asuramaru had always given him nightmares, pulling at his will, breaking down his wall, weakening it. They were always about the same night, replaying the same images playing over and over in his mind.

He still had to wonder about what Asuramaru had said, he had always hinted towards Yuu being part non-human. There were sometimes when he laid awake all night, thinking about what he could possibly be, he wasn't a vampire, that much was sure; he had no desire to drink blood, nor did he have fangs that sprouted from his canines as soon as he smelled blood.

He closed his eyes, inviting sleep with open arms. Maybe whatever supposed _other part_ of him would just bug off and let him sleep for once. Of course, he knew how likely that was and prepared himself to see faces of his dead and dying family once more. Only this time, it wasn't the family he had been preparing for.

 _"_ _What kind of person do you think you are? You are the spawn of a demon, no one will ever want you! It's a wonder that I've put up with you for this long." Yuu felt his mother hit him hard in the head. His small body was covered with bruises, small little cuts here and there._

 _The floor was his friend now, the only friend that was always there for him when he fell. He was meeting with his friend now, while his friend gave him the cold shoulder, as usual. He felt the all-too-familiar pain in his abdomen as well. Dragging her foot to kick him again, his mother braced herself on the counter. She pushed her foot through the air, so that it was going as fast as possible._

 _Yuu felt the impact each and every time she drew back and swung forward. His breath was pushed from his lungs with the force of each kick. After so many strikes that he had lost count and his whole body had turned numb, he could hear the audible_ crack _of what he presumed to be his rib._

 _He cried out one more time, feeling the pain explode in his chest. He was just glad that it wasn't his father. He slowly began to crawl away from his mother, but her foot was unrelenting._

 _"_ _P-please, mom- mom, just let- let me- go." Yuu begged, choking on the saliva in his mouth. He could taste his own blood in the thick liquid, making it even more difficult to breathe. There were tears that were streaming from his eyes, he was crying too often, maybe everyone had so many tears that they could cry and if they used them all up now, he wouldn't be able to cry anymore._

 _"_ _I am_ not _your mother. Believe me when I say this because if there is one thing that I swear to in this life, it is the fact that you are no son of a man. You have no right to my kindness. You're like a dog with a disability, a puppy really. What I'm doing now is a merciful euthanization. You have no right to live."_

 _He tried to pull himself even further away from his mother, and eventually, she kicked him with enough force to send him a good distance. He took this opportunity for what it was, pushing himself up, and almost collapsing again from the pain in his chest. He pushed through it because he didn't want another broken bone._

 _He made his way down the hallway and locked himself in the bathroom. The locks in his room had been taken long ago. His mother pounded on the door, pounding, pounding, pounding. Yuu curled up in a ball, drawing his knees to his chest and putting his hands on his ears, trying to block out the sound. It was no use, as long as his heartbeat, he could hear that insistent pounding in his ears._

 _"_ _Shut up! Please, just-just SHUT THE HELL UP!" He screamed through the door. Then burst into a fit of coughing that didn't let up until after he screamed in pain._

 _The pounding stopped. "Yes. Yes, I suppose you're right." Came his mother's soft reply, "I do suppose I have been a little bit rough with you. Do you want me to look at your bruises for you?" Her voice was soft and forgiving, Yuu fell for her soft voice. His naive seven-year-old mind fell for her forgiving voice._

 _He unlocked the door and was pulled into his mother's heartless embrace. She was like a snake, squeezing the breath out of his lungs, shifting that bone that had been broken. His fragile body couldn't take much more of this, it was going to break. "M-mom," He gasped, "Mom, p-please stop, you're hurting me. Mom." He could feel his body going limp, his breath being restricted and everything slowly going black._

 _He heard one last thing before the darkness enveloped him, "That's the point, my dear Yuuichirou."_

Yoichi sat in the passenger seat of the car Kimizuki was driving, it just seemed right. They had stayed up all night in that little hollow, idly chatting and leaning on each other. Yoichi didn't want to leave him alone, and Kimizuki didn't seem to want to leave either.

So they sat in silence once more, as both the girls had fallen asleep on each other in the back seat. Yoichi liked the silence, it was comforting and constant. Yoichi was able to look at Kimizuki the entire way there as well, to make sure he was still alright even after last night.

"You know you really don't have to watch my back at each and every opportunity," Kimizuki said, breaking the silence. "I really am fine, what you saw there was a moment of weakness on my part and I really don't need you to be there at every twist and turn whenever something goes wrong in my life."

"Kimizuki-kun, that's not what I was doing." Yoichi started to explain, "What want is to make sure that you don't hurt yourself, for both Mirai's sake and my own. I can't bear to see you hurting like that, just knowing you were and that I couldn't tell is bad enough, but now I want to know when you're suffering, I want to know _you_."

There was a silence between them for a while after Yoichi's last word, when finally, he heard him whisper one word, "Why?" The word was one barely audible in the vehicle, but Yoichi heard it loud and clear in his own mind.

"Because you're my friend. But you're more than that. You're someone I can always trust and count on. You're someone who will always help his friends, who will always be there for them, and that's a difficult job because no one will ever ask you if you're sad, they'll just give you their problems with a smile on their face saying, 'here fix it.' No one will ask you how you're doing. So, I want to be that person to you. And you can be that person to me. Because, I'll be honest, Kimizuki-kun, I like you."

"Why do you idolize me like that?"

"Because you're strong and independent. You're caring and dependable. You're able to put on a blank face, an emotionless mask that can let you think and do whatever you want. You can muster up an air around you that makes you unreachable. It gives off a feeling that speaks of power. And I'm weak. Is it wrong for a peasant to idolize a king?"

Kimizuki faltered for a moment, _had this kid just called himself weak? Hell, he's stronger than I am, especially in psychic resistance, just because your body is weak doesn't mean that you are._ He opened his mouth to say the words that went through his head but stopped when he glanced over at Yoichi.

He was smiling, his eyes had lit up and he was watching everything Kimizuki did. "Anything and everything you come up with to bring yourself down, I will tell you seven things to bring you back up. Each and everything will be one-hundred percent true. Don't try and come up with excuses for why you can't do this, or why they're better at that than you. Because it doesn't matter. I can almost see what you're thinking and I'll tell you that it doesn't matter. Nothing matters to me, except for you."

Despite the mask that he had put up, Kimizuki felt a small smile play on his lips, something that hadn't happened in a long time, too long of a time.

Mika sat in the pews at the cathedral. No one ever came in here anymore, so it was a good place to get away from all of the people. A place where no one would look for him and he could try to reason out his thoughts.

 _Akane and the others are dead_ , he told himself, _I saw them die. I saw their pale bodies fall to the ground, devoid of blood. I saw the holes in their chest, a stark contrast to the previously mentioned. I saw them die. What I saw was an illusion, a hallucination. There is no other logical explanation for what I saw._

He needed to lay down, he needed to close his eyes and get over it. It was a nightmare _except it happened when I was awake._ He needed to rest, maybe he hadn't been sleeping enough. He was just about to drift off to sleep when he heard the worst thing that he could imagine.

 _Hey! Hey! Mika! Mika, what are you doing over here all by yourself?_

No, not that voice. anything but that voice. The voice so innocent and pure. It was a voice that came from before that night. A voice that had been so full of hope that he had put there. Hope that he had encouraged, and watched grow. He had nurtured the hope that still remained in that voice, although he eventually reaped what he had sewn. He had seen the hope in those green eyes fade into nothingness. He had heard the hope bleed from his voice.

 _Come on, Mika! I found a new book that will help us! I'm sure this one will help us for sure, we can find out their weaknesses in this one, it'll be better than last time, I promise, Mika._

Mika slowly raised his head. There, sitting right in front of him, his face so close to the other, were the green, green eyes of his friend. They were shining and full of hope, just like the nights that they would stay up all night plotting against the lives of the vampires that held them captive.

 _Mika! Why don't you say something! Come on, we can find a place to hide before they find us._

He knew that he was seeing things again. He was seeing his precious friend again. He tried to tell his mind to ignore it, he tried to tell his mind that it wasn't real, that it was all a fiction created by himself. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or despaired at the sight of Yuu still standing there.

He looked so small, and weak. His mind had only known the twelve-year-old Yuu. He had four years of height built up over him. Even seeing Yuu, he couldn't make his lips curve upwards like they once did. He couldn't force the thing that had once come so naturally to him. It was now beyond his ability to do such a simple thing.

He couldn't make Yuu recognize that he was family until the very end. He couldn't save Akane and the kids. He couldn't stop Krul from creating a vampire out of him. He couldn't stop himself from drinking her blood on that first day. And now, he couldn't even stop seeing these visions. No matter anyway he looked at it, he was a failure at everything he tried to do.

 _Mika?_ Mika _what's wrong? Why aren't you smiling Mika? Are you okay? Please talk to me, I don't like it when you're like this._

The guilt ate him up inside, no matter how he was feeling, or where he was, he could never see that face on Yuu. His precious Yuu. So, for Yuu, and only for Yuu, he put on his most dazzling smile, the first smile in a long while, and it pained him to do so.

Mitsuba had fallen asleep on Shinoa. Well, okay, it wasn't entirely one-hundred-percent, voluntary and it wasn't entirely one-hundred-percent entirely up to Mitsu when she fell asleep. Shinoa may or may not have slightly reached over and put her head on her shoulder. It was out of the goodness of her heart, at least that was what she told herself.

She loved the tiny breaths that Mitsu would puff out, blowing her hair away from her face every time. Mitsu's hair was soft, incredibly soft and it smelled sweet. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Slowly and carefully, she leaned her head on the blonde's and watched through the front window. She was sleepy, Mitsu's hair was so soft, and the cabin of the car was so quiet that she couldn't help but close her eyes to sleep.

 _The sun shone brightly through the windows, but Shinoa had found the perfect place where she wouldn't be blinded immediately. Her father and Mahiru were yelling at something again. These days it wasn't uncommon._

 _"_ _Christmas! I'm telling you something horrible will happen on Christmas! Why don't you believe me? You create me especially for this reason, and yet you refuse to listen when I tell you what is going to happen?"_

 _Shinoa calmly played with her dolls by the window, it was a way to ignore whatever her father and sister were yelling about this time. She could try and retreat to her room, but that would only draw attention to her, so she continued to play._

 _"_ _Because, how could it possibly happen on Christmas? What you're suggesting is impossible! This is genocide, it would be the end of the human race if it were actually to happen."_

 _Shinoa's dolls were always together, they were always around each other and the bigger one was always there for her little sister. Today they were all going out together for a little dinner._

 _"_ _That's exactly what they want father! Of course, they want you to think it's impossible, why else would they try it? If we think that it's impossible, we won't try and make a vaccine for it! Father, you need to listen to me. Something is going to happen, mark my words and if you don't act on them, we will all die and the humans will lose this battle!"_

 _Shinoa loved the way her doll's eyes reflected the sun, she could move the little piece of light around the entire room and it could go from one side to the other in the blink of an eye, she wished that someday she could move that fast, or maybe she could inflict as much pain as the sun did when she accidentally got it in her eye._

 _"_ _How could they possibly engineer a virus that would wipe out everyone over the age of twelve? You can't do that, how would it interact with the cells of a body that is almost thirteen? How does it deem a body the right age? Think this through, Mahiru, there's no possible way that it could work."_

 _Shinoa smiled as she slowly rose from her place by the window, she made her way upstairs, quieter than a lioness on the hunt, and entered her room, freezing as her door made the smallest of squeaks. The commotion hadn't stopped downstairs, but now it was dulled and she couldn't hear any coherent words._

 _"_ _I really don't know, okay! I'm only telling you what I saw, and so far, nothing I've seen has been wrong, so why would this be?"_

 _Shinoa quickly closed her door to shut out the yelling that had reached her room. She could still hear them through the door. While she couldn't understand them, their voices could still be heard up here. She made her way to her bed and covered her ears with her pillows, blocking out the angry voices that she could almost still hear through the layers and layers of feathers._

 _Knowing that no one would be able to hear her, she let the tears flow._


	5. Chapter 5

About three miles out from Sanguinem, Guren and Shinya pulled their car over, causing Kimizuki and his car to do the same. Yoichi decided it was best for him to wake up the girls, as they might not welcome the methods that Kimizuki might employ. The girls woke up quite peacefully and quietly, with smiles on their faces.

The same could not be said for Yuu, who was woken up by Guren.

"Argh! Seriously, Guren? Why couldn't you have had Shinya wake me up, or Yoichi? I'm gonna have a bruise there now!" Yuu asked as he rubbed his shoulder. Guren promptly hit him again. "What was that for you big jerk?!" Yuu screamed.

"You're making too much noise, brat. Do you want the vampires to know that we're here already, we haven't even reached Sanguinem yet." Was Guren's reply.

Shinoa had her usual smile on her face as she looked up at, but yet down upon Yuu at the same time. "Well, knowing Yuu, he probably thought it would be more fun, and wanted to bring them all here so he could act as bait and we could make it into the city safe to kill the queen."

"That's not it all, but when you're so rudely awoken like that, it's hard not to get riled up. You're lucky, you and Mitsuba were woken up by Yoichi. He probably asked you politely and shook your shoulder, but NOT GUREN!" He shouted this last part, earning Guren to clasp his hand over Yuu's mouth.

"Shut up already, Yuu! You do know that vampires have incredible hearing, right? And with the amount of noise that you're pouring out of your mouth, they'll be able to hear you halfway around the world. It'll be like you're shouting in the ears of those who are only three miles away." Guren whispered into his face. "Now, if you'll be quiet, I'll let you go and you can complain while whispering."

Yuu stopped struggling and within moments Guren let him go. Yuu Continued to rub his shoulder and mouth, and spoke, quietly this time, "Anyways, we're going to walk the rest of the way, correct? Or are we going to camp here during the night, and continue on during the day, when they should be resting? Both options seem risky to me."

They were all gathered in a circle, the sun was high in the sky and while he and the girls had gotten plenty of sleep on the way over, he couldn't say the same for the others. Shinya stood next to Guren, probably leaching heat off of him and the girls seemed to be doing the same, Kimizuki pulled a shivering Yoichi closer to himself, leaving Yuu to shiver by himself, but that was okay, he was used to it.

"The plan is to rest here, all of us, and each of us taking our turn to stay up. There will be no fires so bundle up, close and tight." Shinya said, nuzzling closer to Guren. "Yuu will take the first watch, as he got plenty of sleep on the way here, as we could tell from his snoring, then it will be Shinoa, Mitsuba, Yoichi, me, and then if we run out of people, Kimizuki then Guren. Are there any objections?"

The five all shook their heads and Guren grunted in agreement, as if it had been his idea all along, which thinking about it, it probably was his idea and Shinya said it to make himself look important like he was supposed to be.

Despite it being noon, and then just waking up, the girls went to sleep right away, muttering something about the need for "beauty sleep". Yuu retaliated, muttering something about "needing more of it". Kimizuki fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes, arms protectively surrounding Yoichi, who fell asleep soon after Kimizuki. Guren and Shinya fell asleep looking at each other, at arm's length, they had whispered to each other before finally asleep. The girls fell asleep next to each other sharing a cape for warmth.

Yuu grumbled about having to have the first watch, of course, it was fair, but the girls had also slept on the way here, so why was _he_ the one who actually had to keep watch? Just because he slept on the way here, didn't mean that it was a restful sleep, or a sleep that was effective in rejuvenation. Seriously, what was up with that dream, he hadn't had _that_ dream since the night Ferid killed his family, that was his new nightmare.

He aimlessly wandered around in circles around the group. There was no danger here, and he knew it. It was high noon, the vampires might not be asleep right now, but they didn't like going out in the sun, even if they were protected by the bands on their wrists.

He waited for a couple hours, walking around and around, finally stopping to rest in the shade of one of the cars. He leaned back, closed his eyes and listened. He could hear the subtle breathing coming from the rest of the group, and the slight whistle of the wind as it blew around the car. He could hear a slight rumble in the distance, and he could hear his own heartbeat. There was a skittering of a small animal outside, and the footsteps of someone coming towards him, probably one of his friends going to yell at him about trying to sleep on the job. It was quite a peaceful time.

Shinoa was awoken by someone shaking her shoulder, it was her turn to keep watch, she guessed, just to play with Yuu, she didn't move at all. She held her breath and made sure that her entire face was lax and that her body was limp. Yuu shook her shoulder more violently, causing one of her hands to fall on the cold ground.

Wait. Why was the ground cold? It should have been past noon, but not dark, unless Yuu forgot the order and woke someone else, that must've been it, Yuu was always irresponsible and forgetful.

"Oi! Shinoa, wake up!" said a voice that was definitely _not_ Yuu's, "Shinoa, I know you're awake, something's happened." Shinoa's senses went on high alert, that was Kimizuki's voice, and he sounded worried. Kimizuki never sounded worried. Kimizuki shouldn't even be awake, he was one of two people who should've gotten as much sleep as possible.

Shinoa's eyes snapped open, something was wrong, the warmth that had been next to her was gone. She had probably gotten up before her. Rubbing her eyes, she sat up to look at Kimizuki, she could see Guren in the background, but Shinya was nowhere to be found, Yoichi wasn't anywhere either.

"Where's that idiot Yuu? Where's everyone else?" She demanded. Kimizuki's eyes fell and he began to shake ever so slightly. His breathing becoming erratic, and small drops of liquid coming from his eyes.

"They're gone, Shinoa. Everyone's gone. Mitsuba, and Shinya, and Yoichi, and even that idiot who was supposed to be keeping watch!" Kimizuki shouted. He squeezed his fists in frustration. "How did they get them? Yoichi was with me, I'm a light sleeper! How could I have let them get him? Why is this happening to me?" Kimizuki had lowered his voice, it was now barely audible, but she was still able to hear the hurt in his voice.

Shinoa could feel _something_ that was making its way out of her eyes. She tried to hold them back, she tried to hold them in, but they came anyway. They came pouring out of her eyes, down her cheeks, leaving trails of water down her face. They took different paths on their way down, some coalescing on her chin, only to drip down to the ground, and some made their way to her mouth. She could taste the salt working its way onto her tongue.

She hadn't cried in years.

"There's a small pool of blood near the first car, I can only assume that Yuu was caught unawares. The blood is dried, so it happened a while ago. That's probably when Shinya, Mitsuba, and Yoichi were taken as well." Guren said. His voice was cold and calm. His voice was devoid of all emotions that he could possibly feel. He couldn't show his emotions. Not now. Shinoa had to as well. She just had to stop. She couldn't believe that Mitsu was gone.

"I'm going to get them back," Kimizuki promised. "I don't care what you say. I'm going to get Yoichi back. I'll get them all back. Even if it kills me, I'm going to get them all back."

Guren nodded his head, " _We're_ going to get them back. There is no way in Hell that I am going to let them get away with this. The procedure would be to abandon this mission. But just this once, I am saying screw the procedure. We're going to get our friends back, even if it takes us to Hell."

Mika was following Yuu-chan. He was following that beautiful smile and those breath-taking green eyes. They were taking him through the twists and turns of the city, they went past the house that they had stayed at when they were children. They went through the back alleys of the city. There were sometimes when Mika lost sight of the raven hair that he loved, but then he could always follow the melodious sound of Yuu-chan's laughter.

The laughter faded as they came back to the chapel. Yuu's form became increasingly transparent, eventually becoming non-existent once more. He moved back to the pew that he had been sitting at before he saw Yuu-chan.

 _Why is this happening to me now? Why is all of this happening to me? I never wanted to hurt anyone, I never wanted to hurt them._ Mika held his head in his hands, trying to block out anything else that would try and talk to him, anything else that would open old wounds.

Even though the flesh of his hands, he heard the _clack, clack, clack_ of heeled boots on polished tile. The sound was sharp and staccato, a sound of power that echoed through the halls. He could hear the _swish_ of fabric against fabric as someone approached him. The two sounds as different as night and day, one short and sharp, the other soft and quiet, but they both went hand-in-hand with each other.

"Mika-kun. Oh, Mika-kun. There's something that I think you might find interesting." Internally, Mika groaned at the voice. He quickly removed his hands from his head and gave the appearance that he was rubbing his head in frustration, anything to make sure that Ferid wouldn't find out about these hallucinations.

Mika straightened and stood up, to shoot his usual glare ar Ferid. "What is it now, Ferid? I'm not going to join you for a drink like you always ask." Mika turned his body and walked past Ferid, with any luck, Ferid would drop this topic and never talk to him again.

Ferid, sped up his pace and began to walk in front of Mika, leading the way.

Of course, it was too much to ask for him to leave him alone and never talk to him again. Mika followed Ferid in silence, he figured that it was pretty much expected of him, and if he was going to fight it, it would be futile. Ferid seemed happier than usual, a bounce in his step and a smile on his face. Mika wondered why he seemed so ecstatic, but there was no way that he would lower himself to actually ask anything of him, no matter how curious.

"What's wrong, Mika-kun? Aren't you wondering where I'm taking you?" Ferid asked, turning around so that he was walking backward and looking at Mika. "I could be luring you to my home so that I can kill you, I could be taking you to see your precious Yuu-chan, I could be taking you to Krul, or I might even be taking you to gain information from the humans."

"So, which is it then?" Mika asked.

Ferid's smile grew mischievous. "Now, now Mika-kun, we don't want to spoil the surprise? Do we?" Ferid turned back around and quickened his pace. Mika knew that there was nothing that he would get out of him, he had only named off those things to get him thinking.

Mika followed Ferid to a door that he had never been through before, _I guess this rules out Krul, and Ferid killing me in his home._ Mika thought.

With an ostentatious flourish, and a pompous bow, Ferid opened the door and entered. Mika made to follow when the smell hit him.

It was the smell of fresh blood. It was the smell of blood in the air, almost like if he walked in, he would become a full vampire just by breathing. Mika was on his knees, he could hear the rush of his own blood in his ears, he wasn't ready for this. The smell was too strong, it was overwhelming. He had to cover his mouth and nose, biting his hand to make sure that he stayed outside, and under control.

The light flickered on inside. The light was weak and cast a yellowish glow on the entirety of the room.

He saw red, at first he thought it was just his imagination, but he soon realized that he was actually seeing red. The floors and walls were painted with blood, there were splatters everywhere, even on the ceiling. But what really made his heart stop were the three figures in the middle.

They were all dressed in a similar fashion, with black jackets, and black pants. Well, except for the one blonde haired girl, who wore a black skirt. They were all strung up, crucified, with their arms spread out as far as possible. Their feet were above the ground and they were all unconscious. They seemed to be lined up from tallest to shortest, the tallest being on the left. Their heads all hung forward, displaying their hair, but not much else. He saw silver hair, black hair, brown hair, and blonde hair.

Off to the side, he could see bodies piled high, rotting and devoid of any blood. Ferid stood off to the side and tapped a pattern into the pipes, it sounded like a message to Mika, but he couldn't decipher it. Instead, he approached the unfortunate humans who had been strung up.

Starting at the right, he looked at the blonde girl. She wore her hair in pigtails off to the side of her head. Her legs were bare from her knees to her thighs and she wore the same uniform as the men, only with a skirt. Her skin was free of any blemishes, whether natural or created by whoever had brought her here, and she had a cute face.

The next human in line was the one with brown hair. It was slightly curled and appeared to be quite soft. When Mika looked at his face, it reminded him of some of the children at the orphanage, he looked small and fragile. He looked innocent like he could never hurt anyone in the world.

Mika walked on to the next man, this one had raven colored hair, and it appeared to be slightly sticky with something, with a jolt, Mika realized it was blood. _This one wasn't taken easily,_ He thought. He took a better look at him, if it wasn't for the boy being elevated, he would have been about his height, maybe even shorter. The boy's face was somehow similar, but Mika couldn't put his finger on where he might have seen it before, and his judgment was slightly impaired by the blood that was streaked down his face.

The last man in line was taller than him, and he also appeared to be awake, not processing the new information, but awake nonetheless. His silver hair was straight and hung down in front of his face. "Where…? Where… Gu… ren? Is… safe? Watch… happened… Yuu?" The man whispered, even if it was plenty loud for Mika's heightened hearing.

Who was Guren? Was it one of the other humans here? Maybe one of them was a little brother of his? Did he say 'watch'? Maybe the one with the wound had been in charge of the group. What else did he say after that? He said something else after that. Was it part of another word? Or was it… a… name…?

It all suddenly clicking into place, he walked back to the last boy, the one with the raven hair that suddenly seemed so familiar. He looked at the boy's face once more, wiping the blood from his face as gently as possible, so he wouldn't disturb him. The face was one of striking resemblance to the one he had chased around the city earlier.

Mika stumbled back, almost tripping over himself. He heard Ferid's voice echoing in his ears. _I could be taking you to see your precious Yuu-chan._ Mika clasped his hands over his ears, but to no avail, the words echoed in and out of his head, bouncing around. But then, he remembered something else that Ferid had said. _I might even be taking you to gain information from the humans._

He looked back at the boy who he hadn't seen in four years, to the boy that had made him genuinely smile for the first time. The boy who had been accused of demon-spawn and beaten by his father. The boy that he had looked up to. The boy who swore to kill the vampires that did this to him, the boy who probably hated him for what he was. "Yuu… chan?"


	6. Chapter 6

Yuu felt a throbbing in the back of his head. He tried to move his arms and see what was making his head throb but he found his movement restricted. Wincing, he tried even harder, but he still couldn't move.

Then the smell hit him. It smelt like someone had left bodies out in the sun for forever, and concentrated that smell of rotting flesh and placed it right under his nostrils. He groaned and blinked open his eyes.

His first thought was that he was right about the bodies, the floor was covered in blood. And his second thought was that _the floor was frickin' covered in blood_. Then, he realized that there were other people in the room with him. He could hear their breathing, it was harsh and ragged.

"Ahhhh… Finally awake, are we, Yuu-chan?" Yuu recognized the voice immediately. It was Ferid. It was the man who had taken his family from him. The man who had ruined his life at the age of twelve.

Yuu struggled against what was holding him there, only to discover that he had been strung up. It felt like cords had been wrapped around his wrists, holding him against a pole of some sort. His feet were bound to each other, and then bound to a wider pole that seemed to support his whole body. He looked side to side, trying to confirm his thoughts and saw that he was right, he was strung up, and there were other people in the room with him. There was Shinya, who seemed to be awake, and there was Yoichi, who didn't seem to be awake.

 _No. This can't be happening._ He thought, _Why? Why did I think that those footsteps were friendly? Everyone values their sleep, the only one who would actually do that would be Yoichi, but he was exhausted. Look at this mess I've gotten us into. I can only see Shinya and Yoichi. Please tell me that the others aren't here. Please tell me that they abandoned the mission. Please. Please. Please._

"Hmmm… Ah Yuu-chan, what are you saying, I can't hear you all the way over here. Was that you begging?" Yuu stopped thinking, had he just said those things out loud? No. He could never let Ferid know that he would stoop so low as to beg for his life. "Well, Yuu-chan, that's not very nice of you to ignore me when I'm talking to you. Perhaps you need a little incentive?"

From his left, he heard a scream. It wasn't Yoichi, it was more feminine and he could see Yoichi. Was it Shinoa? He went through all of the possibilities, it could be Shinoa, or Mitsuba, or even a random human girl that they had brought in. He could hear the voice sobbing. He knew then that it was Mitsuba, her voice bled through the whimpers. "Go, screw yourself, vampire." Yep, that was Mitsuba for sure.

"Stop! What are you doing? Come here and speak to me yourself, blood-sucker. You coward, come here and hurt me yourself." Yuu shouted he could hear his voice echo in the room. It sounded powerful like he could be issuing orders, and people would actually listen to him.

Ferid chuckled, making his own wicked laughter echo through Yuu's voice, cutting it short. "Awe, you're so cute, aren't you? Calling _me_ a coward?" Ferid appeared from behind him, his red eyes prodding into his very soul. "Do you really feel like you can talk, pot? I mean after you left that night four years ago. What did you do?" Ferid leaned up to whisper the last part in his ear, "You ran." He continued to chuckle.

"Who all is here? How many of us?" This voice came from Yuu's right, and he realized it was Shinya. "I know there's Yuu, Mitsuba, and I. Are the rest here, or are they safe?" Shinya seemed to be the calmest one here, despite their situation.

"Yoichi's here too, I' can't see anyone else, unless there's someone next to Mitsuba," Yuu replied, and Mitsuba confirmed that no one else was there.

"Okay, so there's four of us. With any luck, the rest of them abandoned the mission. We shouldn't expect any help from them, and no one else knew other than the higher-ups who issued this mission, and I don't think they'd spend extra manpower to try and get us out of this mess. We're on our own."

"So, basically, we're screwed. There's no way that we're gonna get out of this without any help. And when you think you've won against the vampires, it's always something that they were planning for you to do. It's just another game that they play."

"Well, Yuu-chan, I wouldn't say _always_. You shooting me wasn't part of my game, it was quite uncomfortable in reality." Ferid said, having listened in on their conversation. "But, we do like to play our games. And I have quite an interesting piece here to play with you, he'll be back momentarily after I finish setting the board."

Ferid walked around to Shinya and injected a clear liquid into a vein. He walked over to Yoichi and Mitsuba and did the same. "Now, all that's left to do it wait, and the board will be ready for its players." Ferid walked over to Yuu, strapped to the poles that kept him there. Reaching up, Ferid tore Yuu's jacket from his form.

Yuu watched as the jacket he had worked so hard to obtain was ripped from him, and there was nothing that he could do about it. He couldn't stop it, he couldn't keep a single stitch of his hard work as it was torn from him.

"Now, the game board is set, and the players will face off in a battle of wits and wills." Beside him, Shinya shuddered, his breathing becoming increasingly labored and hoarse. His eyes slowly closing even as he struggled to keep them open, and finally, his body going limp, his breathing barely there, but Yuu could see his chest slowly rise and fall. The same happened to Yoichi, even though he wasn't awake, his breathing slowed and deepened. Even though he couldn't see her, he suspected the same had happened with Mitsuba.

Ferid walked out of the room, a spring in his step, "Now, enjoy the game, my dear, dear pawns."

The door was opened a few moments later by a vampire dressed in a different uniform than the standard white and black. It was pure white, there was no other color that stained the uniform. The boots were white, even as they walked through the red blood spilled on the floor. The figure was tall and lean, as it neared, Yuu could identify the gender to most likely be male, even though his blond hair reached to his shoulders. There was something else odd about this vampire though. And it only became evident as he became close enough to see the vampire's facial features.

His eyes were blue. These were eyes that he recognized instantly, he might not have recognized the blond hair that he had grown up with. He might not have recognized the unsmiling face, but he recognized the eyes. Only there was an anomaly in the eyes that he knew so well. They were unfocused, almost mechanical. The blue eyes that he had seen for the past eight years-either in waking hours, or in the hours of nightmares-were dull. They were devoid of any and all feelings.

"Mika!?" Yuu exclaimed as the vampire neared him. "No, there's no way that you're Mika. Mika's been dead for four years. He was killed by that last vampire. Mika would smile, he would come up to me laughing at the problems I always get myself into. He would get me out of here. He would help me and my friends."

Mika said nothing as he approached Yuu, he only stared at him, with the blue eyes that Yuu loved, the blue eyes that he had seen and loved from the first day that he had seen them. The blue eyes that now showed no glimmer of the life that had once been abundant in them.

"Well, Yuu-chan. If you'll tell me what I want to know I'll answer your question. If you haven't figured it out already, that is."

"Mi…ka?" _No, this isn't Mika. There's no way this is Mika. Whatever_ _it is, it stole Mika's body. It stole Mika's voice. It even stole Mika's eyes. But whatever was in front of me is_ not _Mika._

"Awe, look at that, you're already shaking in your boots. We haven't even started this game yet."

Yuu was terrified. The thing that was Mika was advancing and twirling a knife. Now it was smiling, but the smile was filled with sadistic lust. It wasn't a smile to put you at ease, it was a smile that wanted to see you in pain and didn't mask in any way possible. The thing in Mika wanted to make it completely clear that he was going to hurt him and that there would be no help from him.

"What do you say, Yuu-chan?" It asked, the knife tracing lines on Yuu's exposed flesh. "Do you wanna have some fun? Let the game begin."

Mika had run out of the room. It was Yuu-chan. It was _his_ Yuu-chan. He was _here,_ in the city of the vampires. How? What was Ferid planning? That didn't matter right now, all that mattered was that Yuu-chan was alive and close to him. So close, he could go back in and touch him.

His head started to hurt again. He could feel the bloodlust creeping up on him. It was slow, but the pain was almost unbearable. The smell of blood wafted to his nose, causing his senses to go on high alert. Every pore on his body burst with sweat. It streamed down his face and breathing became harder and harder. His chest ached and he realized that he _needed_ Krul's blood. He needed her blood, and he needed it now. He reached into the pouch of her blood that he kept at his hip and took out a single vial of the blood.

His hands were shaking. They were shaking so much that the vial of liquid slipped from his fingers. The glass shattering as it hit the polished floor. Mika watched as the vial shattered, he could see each and every individual shard of glass every which way. The sound reverberated inside his skull, the sharp sound ringing in his ears, lingering there for what seemed like hours.

The liquid splattered across the tile floor, leaving red streaks across it. The color so close to the color of his family members that Ferid had spilled. He was enthralled by the stark contrast of the deep red color against the polished white, the liquid seemed to bubble towards the middle of the splatter, tiny particles of air trapped in the sticky substance that was his life-line. Now he had a reason to live. A reason that he could see. A reason that he could touch.

Panic settled in, the gravity of the situation finally set in. Yuu had been captured by the vampires. Mika was a vampire. Yuu was in that room that was covered in the blood of past victims, there is no way for him to get out on his own. Yuu's friends were there as well. No, they were just using him. Mika needed to get Yuu out.

"So you are as shaken as I had expected." Ferid's voice said, snapping him back to reality, away from the spilled blood. "Krul told me to give you this as soon as you came out of that room. Don't worry, it's her blood. However, it does have a calming agent in it to reduce your attacks." Ferid tossed a vial of blood to him, Mika could tell it was her blood by the smell and he could also tell that it was fresh.

Uncorking it, he tipped the vial back, drinking its contents. Immediately, he felt his bloodlust receding, he regained control of his own body, the pain in his chest dissipating and his head clearing. As much as it pained him to realize, Ferid had probably saved him from hurting the last member of his family, he almost felt the need to thank him, but then remembered the fact that he hated his guts.

But then something different happened, he became dizzy, the world started spinning. Mika put out a hand out to steady himself against the wall but found nothing there. He tried to steady himself by widening his stance, but as soon as he lifted a leg, the world spun even more. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, the world spun and his reaction time was severely impacted.

He registered an impact on his right side, but it was more of noticing something happen to someone else. It just felt like pressure, something that caused him discomfort, but not pain. The light from the ceiling caused Ferid's silhouette to appear sinister and brooding, his voice was layered and the pitches changed, it was like he was hearing thousands of different voices all saying the exact same thing, all saying it the exact same way, it gave him a headache.

"Ahhh, so that little drug _does_ work, well the first part at least. We might have to wait a bit to test the second bit. Well, if it doesn't kill you first. If this all works, then I could be a spectator to a very, very interesting game. What do you say, Mika-kun. Up for a game?"

Yoichi grimaced, he felt a pain in his neck, it was a sharp pain that didn't seem to stop, in fact, it seemed to grow. It spread throughout his entire body, and it was always growing. His blood felt like fire but his skin felt like it was ice and his blood was trying to break through it. The pain was worse than he could imagine, he had never felt anything like it before, and he certainly never wanted anything like this.

He tried to arch his back, he needed to get away from the pain, anything to make it stop. He could hear someone screaming in the distance. _As soon as I can get whatever this is to stop, I'll go help them._ He thought to himself as the pain seemed to grip his heart, making every beat of blood that pumped through his body ache and burn.

The scream stopped for an instant of a second, and Yoichi felt his lungs freeze as he breathed in, causing a new type of pain in his body. As the scream resumed, he felt like the ice in his chest instantly boiled. _Is that me? Am I the one screaming? I wouldn't be surprised, with whatever is happening to me._ It all continued for hours, a vicious cycle of pain.

Finally, it dissipated. Yoichi was breathing heavily, he had long discerned that it had been him who was screaming, and his throat burned and he knew that he wouldn't be able to talk for a few days at least.

Finally, he was able to blink open his eyes, even though it was a little fuzzy at first, he could see the red floor and his sweat that was falling from his nose. The bright light shone in his eyes, but he kept them open in an effort to adjust his eyes quickly. He needed to take note of his surroundings, make sure that he knew where he was.

He started with the floor. It was the only thing he could look at without craning his neck and causing more pain to shoot through him. The floor was quite interesting in its design, some areas it was a deep, dark red, and in others, it seemed almost white.

 _Its blood._ A voice in his mind said, _you know it, you just don't want to recognize it._ In that instant, Yoichi knew it to be true, there was nothing else that could cause this design on a floor. The splatters were varied but seemed to be concentrated around where he was. He tried to make his eyes wander further than the floor, but something caught his eye, a large grouping of black.

His neck hurt, but he still raised his head to try and get a better view of the odd grouping. It was an odd mound because it seemed to have different objects sticking out from the mound at various angles and lengths. When his vision partially returned, he realized what they actually were. They were the bodies of humans. Their faces were pale from blood loss and their eyes all stared off in the distance.

He let out a strangled gasp in realization, those were the bodies of humans. They had once been alive. They all looked like they had been dead for a while, the skin was hanging from their bones in different stages of decay. Some of them had empty eye sockets that seemed to jump out at him, trying to ensnare him in the consuming blackness. The limbs had been bent at painful angles, in some cases the bone was sticking out, revealing jagged white edges.

He tried to scream, to move, to _get out of there_ , but all that came out of his mouth was a mangled cry, and his arms were tied to something. There was no escape. Forgetting about the pain in his neck, he frantically searched the room, the walls were red, the ceiling was red. He swung his head from side to side searching for something, seeing his wrists bound by a thin rope several times, his feet similarly bound. But as he stung his head to the left, he saw something that made his heart hurt even more.

Mitsuba was unconscious, her head hanging between her shoulders, in a rag-doll fashion. There was blood that streamed down from her thigh from a horizontal cut, and it disappeared into her boot. It had already started to scab over, a puckered mass forming over the wound.

"Mitsuba! Mitsuba, can you hear me?" Yoichi's voice was hoarse and it hurt to talk, but as much force as he put into it, his voice was barely a whisper that was lost in the room. "Mitsuba! You need to wake up! We need to get out of here!" He struggled against his bonds, trying to reach out to her, trying to help her.

 _I need to get help, I need to help her, get her out of whatever mess we're in._ He tried to remember if there was anything in his pockets or the little pouch that was sewn into the wrist of his jacket, anything that he might still have access to. He needed to look at everything, he turned his head to the right to see the ropes that bound him, but his own well-being was forgotten at what he saw instead.

Yuu's torso had been stripped of clothing, showing his bare flesh, but that wasn't what concerned him. There were shallow cuts all over his chest and torso, they connected in beautiful and intricate patterns. Someone had put a lot of thought and time into this work, whoever it was, he enjoyed doing this. Yuu's blood slowly dripped to the floor, off of his arm, and his chest. The amount of blood that streaked down his skin was impressive. The wounds were fresh, there was no scarring or anything and every wound still oozed. Yoichi could feel his eyes widen at every drop of liquid that fell from his friend.

"Yuu-kun! Yuu-kun, are you awake?" Yoichi hissed, his throat was so raw, and his voice so weak that he was continually reprimanding himself for screaming so much. No one would be able to hear him when he could barely hear himself. "Yuu-kun, you need to stay awake do you hear me? Please, please don't die."

"Aw, now you see, why would I let him die if he gave me so much enjoyment? It's quite counter-intuitive if you ask me." A voice said from behind Yoichi, it was a hard voice, an unforgiving voice.

A vampire dressed in all white rounded the corner. His boots were stained red from walking in the blood on the floor, and his uniform was stained red from the blood most likely earned tormenting Yuu. There were slight droplets of red that littered his face and hair. There was something that held his interest for a while, though, and he couldn't figure it out first but when it finally came to him, it puzzled him. This vampire had blue eyes. They were a startling blue, so similar to the sky, but they were dull.

The vampire smiled, a smile that demonstrated the things that he had done to Yuu already, and the things he was most likely to do to him. "You know, something interesting, Yoichi-kun? As I was carving the pretty pictures in Yuu-chan's skin, he said something lovely. 'Please, please don't hurt them, they've done nothing wrong, I don't want them to get hurt because of a stupid mistake I made, so, please. Please, I beg of you, don't hurt them.' It was so cute! Just adorable. So, do you want to know what I did? I carved a little deeper, and he can hear every. Single. Word. That we're saying, but he can't do a thing about it! He will hear every scream of pain that I inflict on you, he has heard everything you've already said, but he can't do a thing about it!"

Yoichi could hear the insanity that dripped from his voice. This guy was way too far gone, there was no helping him now.

"So, now what do you say?" The vampire asked as he ripped off Yoichi's jacket. "Do you want to have a little bit of fun?"

The knife dug into Yoichi's flesh, causing the blood to escape his body. But Yoichi held in his scream. He couldn't let Yuu hear this, even if what the vampire had said was all wrong, he had to stay strong, he couldn't break because of the promises that he had made to Kimizuki. He would stay strong and he would give Kimizuki a place to fall back on when he needed it. He would not break.

"You're no fun, come on. I need to hear you _scream_." The knife cut deeper into his skin, tracing a line along his rib. A whimper escaped Yoichi's mouth, and tears escaped his eyes. He could feel the coolness of the knife as it cut into his abdomen, and felt the hot blood pour out of his body.

Yoichi clenched his teeth, he _would not_ scream. Whatever this monster wanted, it wasn't information it seemed like, he was simply doing this for pleasure. There was no way that he would break down in front of him, there was no way that he would let Kimizuki down.

"Now, now, Yoichi-kun. All of my hard work will go to waste if you don't supply me with one measly little scream." The vampire moved to his hands, playing with the different fingers, bending them, but not breaking them. Suddenly, he gripped the nail of his index finger and pulled it free of its bed.

Tears sprung from his eyes, streaming down his face and he panted in pain and hung his head.

"Hmmm, well, I'm quite glad you didn't scream there because symmetry is beautiful, don't you think? But, here I do want a scream because I'll be honest, your little life is only worth the information I can glean from my dear, dear Yuu-chan. So, if I have to kill you to make him spit out that information, I will. So, here's my deal to you. You scream and Yuu-chan tells me exactly what I want to know, _or_ I kill you and let him watch, breaking his will and having him give me the information I want to know. Because right now, he's lying to me. So, it is in your best interest if you scream."

The vampire tore out his other nail, and Yoichi couldn't help it. He screamed. The scream caused his voice to crack and his throat to split. It echoed throughout the entire room, leaving a consuming silence in its wake. He swallowed heavily, trying to moisturize the back of his throat.

The exact second after the scream broke from his throat, the vampire in front of him began to convulse vigorously. His blue eyes rolling back in his head, and his body jerking in every possible way. He collapsed on the floor shuddering and choking on his saliva. The red floor stained his white cape and his blonde hair, soaking it thoroughly. After what felt like hours of watching the tall man convulse on the floor, he laid still.

Yoichi watched the man carefully before cautiously asking, "A-are you okay…?"

His voice was a whisper but he could tell that it reached the man, who immediately started to shake once more. Only this time, it was more controlled and gentle. It didn't consume his entire body but instead, it remained concentrated on his shoulders and chest. After a few seconds of watching him shake, Yoichi heard small sounds of sobbing coming from his form. The sobbing abated quickly and the vampire tried to prop himself up on his shoulders, but his limbs shook under his weight and instead, he simply rolled over to try and see Yoichi.

There was life in his blue eyes now, the eyes that widened in shock or sorrow. And his face was red on his left side, which he tried to use his cape to wipe off. It looked like he was trying to form words. he tried to prop himself up again, and he failed once more. He looked so weak. _Is this really the same person that was torturing me a moment ago? He looks so sad and almost innocent._

"No." The vampire uttered, it was all he could manage at the time. "No, no, no, no, no." He gripped his head in his hands, pressing against his temples and staring at the ceiling. He turned back over to look at Yoichi. "I'm so, sorry. I-I didn't want to do it-it was me, but it wasn't me. I-I didn't want to do any of this. I couldn't control my body, I could only try and speak. But all that got me was to convey a thought that I wanted and that-that _thing_ that was inside me or had control of me and it spit it out. I-I'm so so sorry." The vampire broke down in tears again, the drops of liquid falling from his eyes and into the floor.

The vampire struggled to sit up once more, and finally succeeded, stabilizing himself by crossing his legs and leaning forward. His blue eyes wandered from Yoichi to Mitsuba, and then back to Yoichi. Then he looked to Yuu's ragged and bloody form suspended above the ground. Yoichi could see the terror fill his eyes, and the vampire desperately, desperately trying to reach him, falling over as he struggled to move, closer to him, falling over and dragging himself closer to him. The vampire was panting with the exertion that it took to drag himself across the blood-stained floor.

Yoichi watched as the vampire took out the knife that he had used to open new wounds in its victims and precariously raised it to cut the ropes that held Yuu's legs to the pole. The vampire's arm shook with the effort to raise his arm above his head, and even when the knife slipped from his fingers and slit a line on his cheek, the vampire still struggled to cut the ropes that held Yuu there.

"W-wait. Cut my ropes. Cut my ropes and then I can help get Yuu-kun down, and I can help Mitsuba down as well. Then I can help you and you can save your strength." Yoichi whispered through his broken throat. The blond complied, pushing himself over to Yoichi's post. The ropes frayed and loosened around his feet and he was able to tear his legs free of them. "Now, I'm gonna ask you to do something really really weird, but please do it because it will be ingenious if it actually works. Can you take off my shoes?"

Looking at him oddly, the vampire removed his shoes as he had been instructed. Having his shoes removed, the shorter man removed his socks on his own, tossing them off to the side into a red puddle of viscous liquid. "Okay, now can you put the blade handle- the handle make sure- in my foot, so I can grip it." The man obeyed and Yoichi curled his toes around the handle of the blade. "Now comes the tricky part." Yoichi lifted the lower part of his body high enough to reach his wrists. Gently, ever so gently, he sawed away at the ropes that bound his arms to the pole, he missed and made a small cut on his wrist, wincing and almost dropping the knife, but catching it at the last second, he let out a sigh of relief. He frayed the ropes more and more, weakening them until they finally snapped, and his body swung down, and yanked on his wrist, shooting pain through his arm and making him cry out. He quickly transferred the knife from his foot to his hand and cut the rope holding his other wrist, falling to the floor, knees buckling under the sudden weight. He looked at his left wrist, which was limp and seemed to curve. It was broken or at least dislocated, he couldn't use his cursed gear.

He made his way to Yuu, who seemed to be unconscious, but on closer inspection, even though his body hung limply on the structure, his eyes were half open. He stared at the floor with such a look in his eyes that Yoichi could have mistaken them for eyes belonging to one of the bodies piled in the corner. Moving as quickly as he could, he cut the ropes on his left and right wrist, making sure that he didn't break Yuu's wrist as he had probably done for himself. He cut the ropes on his feet and remembered to do it the other way around on Mitsuba and Shinya who he had spotted while getting Yuu down.

With Yuu safely disconnected, he half-carried half-dragged Yuu across the floor to the vampire who took him and hugged his limp form, muttering things too quiet for Yoichi to hear. He moved on to Mitsuba and cut the ropes attached to her legs first, then her wrists. She seemed to regain some sort of cognitive control and was able to mildly support herself on their way back. Shinya was a different story, his body hung limp and Yoichi knew there was no way that he was ever going to get him down without severely hurting the silver-haired man.

"Hey, hey Shinya! Shinya are you awake? You need to wake up, otherwise, I can't get you down." After poking and prodding for a minute or two, he gave up and simply cut the ropes binding his feet.

He made his way back to Yuu and the vampire who were still in the same position as earlier. Yuu was limp and the vampire clung to the form in his arms, touching their foreheads together and mouthing words that only he could hear. Tears fell from his eyes and onto Yuu's, and even though his chest rose and fell in time with his breathing and his eyes remained open, he showed no recognition that anything had happened. His chest was a mosaic of cuts and slashes, connecting to each other in intricate designs. The vampire didn't mind and pulled him closer still, staining his clothes red with blood, the design transferring people.

As Yoichi approached he could hear the vampire whispering to Yuu. "I'm so so sorry, Yuu-chan. I did this to you. I never wanted to hurt you, ever. Please, Yuu-chan just wake up, I don't even care if you hate me for the rest of my life. I don't care if you try and kill me because I deserve it. I don't care. Just please _please_ wake up. I need you to wake up. I need to know that you're okay and that I didn't kill you. Please, Yuu-chan, please wake up. Akane wants to know if you're okay. All of the kids want to make sure that you're okay. Just please, if only for their sake, be okay."

Yuu's eyes remained half closed, and non-focused, with a dulled look. Even as Yoichi watched, his breathing became increasingly shallow and labored, his breath rasping slightly as he inhaled. The vampire seemed to gain the life that Yuu was rapidly losing, his face taking on more color as Yuu's become dull.

"Please, please Yuu-chan! Please stay with me! I beg of you." The vampire lowered his face to place his lips on Yuu's forehead, "Please Yuu-chan. Please, I can't live without you. I would never forgive myself, please Yuu-chan. I love you." The last sentence was barely audible in the chamber, almost lost to all ears except for Yoichi's. The vampire curled protectively over Yuu's flimsy form, wailing in anguish, his tears streaming down his face and littering the other's.

He rocked their bodies back and forth on the ground, begging Yuu to wake up. Begging and screaming at his inability to do anything at all. The screams echoed throughout the room, layering on top of each other until there was a cacophony of the blond's misery that stirred Mitsuba and Shinya both. The vampire stopped suddenly and whirled around, fixing his eyes on a point seemingly out of nowhere.

Yoichi moved quickly to Shinya, making sure that he was responsive enough to safely get down and cut the ropes on his wrists. He gave him support by letting Shinya lean heavily on him and walking him over to the three people on the floor. He tried to ask what had happened but stopped after sensing the mood and seeing Yuu's bloody chest.

The vampire clung to him harder than Yoichi had ever clung to anything in his entire life. His grip lessened suddenly and he placed his ear next to Yuu's lips. The vampire sat back on his heels, the corners of his mouth slightly raised in a smile. "Thank God. Oh, thank you, whatever supernatural force is out there." His body relaxing and his joints flooding with relief. It was at that moment that Yoichi heard a dreaded sound.

It was the sound of slow, theatrical clapping. Every conscious person's head swerved to the source, a vampire with long silver hair and red eyes. He walked with an ostentatious sway in his hips and a pompous gait. This caused the blood on the floor to splash in some places and chip away in others. When he spoke, his voice sounded almost congratulatory.

"Very nice. Very nice, I do have to say that this is the fastest people have ever escaped from this, less than a day. Very nice. However, I do have to say that I'm disappointed, I really expected to see more pain out of all of you, I wanted to see the look of despair in your eyes as all hope was ripped from you. You're all out, aren't you? So, now it's time to take that little piece of hope from you and watch you despair."

Faster than Yoichi could follow, the silver-haired man ran at the blond, but instead of punishing his fellow vampire, he kicked Yuu's broken body halfway across the room, and he heard a gasp of pain from him. The blond haired vampire tried to jump up in defense of Yuu, but his limbs were still too weak and all he succeeded in doing was falling over. The silver-haired one laughed as he pulled the other up off the floor with one hand on the collar of his shirt.

"Now, now Mika-kun, don't you think to make it a better game you need to play with your competitor. So, you want to know something interesting? All of the blood that is contaminated with a harmful virus of any kind is tossed in here. How's your hunger, Mika-kun? It should be returning with more of a need. So I'll give you a choice, you can either kill your precious princess now and let his little friends run free. _Or_ , you can do exactly as I say and you two play the same game together, and his friends may or may not run free, that depends on who wins the game. So kill him now, or watch him die later. It should be quite an easy decision, look at him now! He's helpless and would crumble beneath your power, just a simple little cut and all he's ever cared about will be safe. You have thirty seconds, choose."

Yoichi couldn't believe what he was hearing. If Yuu died by this vampire's hands right now, then they would all run free. Or they would have to play a game. His life was hanging on the thread of a string. And it was up to Mika. He wouldn't let Yuu just die, he ran as fast as he could, grimacing in pain from his wrist and chest. After what felt like an eternity, which actually lasted ten seconds, he stood over Yuu and spread his arms in defiant protection of his friend. There was no way that he was going to stay under the bed with this one. He was going to protect his family.

"D-don't wor-ry about m-me, Yoichi. I'm fine. A-Asura- he's help-ing me. J-just run." Yoichi turned to see Yuu staring at him, and smiling. "I'll stay here at the cost of my life. You at least have to escape, try and get Mika and Shinya out as well. Mitsuba too I guess. I'm so sorry I let this happen, and you need to listen right now. Don't say 'stop' or 'don't do that'. Please, just remember, Yoichi. We're all part of the same family."

The next thing that happened would haunt Yoichi for the rest of his life. Yuu took the knife that Yoichi had forgotten about when he ran over here and stupidly dropped on the floor. Taking a deep breath and smiling, he thrust the blade into his stomach. "I finally found another family, don't let my sacrifice be in vain. Stop staring at me with that look in your eye. HURRY UP AND GO, IDIOTS!"


	7. Chapter 7

Kimizuki snuck around the entrance to the tunnel. According to Guren, this was the place that he had found Yuu when he first got out. He gestured to Guren and Shinoa, signaling that the way was clear and that there was nothing obvious to worry about. The group of three snuck through the damp passageway, as quietly as they could, even though every step squished in the damp soil underneath them.

The air became more and more humid the further they went through, and breathing became more difficult. Soon all three were panting and sweating their way through the tunnel, stealth forgotten, practically running through the tunnel. The only way that they could tell they were going anywhere was the fact that every time they lifted their feet out of the ground, they didn't fall back into the same hole that was left there. The pitch black of the tunnel enveloped them, choking off any light that tried to make its way to them. Colors swam in front of their eyes, forming shapes and stars of green and yellow.

They could feel the roots that sprung up from the ground attempting to trip them and succeeding several times. Eventually, the soft soil became more and more compact, giving way to tile floors that made the heels of their boots echo in the darkness and resound back to them.

After what seemed like hours in the dark, they spotted a pinpoint of light that pierced through the shifting colors and shapes to give their eyes a bit of light, no matter how little. They dragged their hands against the wall, feeling the smooth unblemished mineral beneath their fingertips. Despite the new developments in their journey, they slowed their pace to diminish the sound that their heels made on the floor and slow their breathing ever so slightly.

Kimizuki was the first, followed by Shinoa and then Guren brought up the rear, this was the best formation for them to be in, because this way their weakest link was in the middle, with the longest reach as well. With Kimizuki in the front, it ensured that he would have a little bit of warning if an enemy were to come at him from the front. Guren brought up the rear because he was the strongest by far and would have the best reaction time if something tried to surprise them.

The pink-haired man peeked around the corner of the tunnel. He stood speechless for a while, the incredible room taking his entire focus. The ceiling rose far above what any normal room would. Everything was polished beyond just plain cleanliness, it almost seemed to sparkle, with the white casting an almost blue hue on everything. The entire room felt like a cathedral or church, with high arches that towered over his head. The room was dropped seven feet or so, by a set of stairs that spanned the entire length of the room that exited to the tunnel. In between some of the arches were dark doorways that Kimizuki could almost feel eyes watching him from.

He was brought back to reality when he spotted a white hooded figure that was making its way across the room. He ducked his head back against the wall, cursing at himself for not noticing the figure sooner because he was so enthralled by the room and how amazing it was. He could even hear the emclick clack/em of their boots against the polished tile.

He held his breath and prayed that the vampire had not heard or seen him, if this vampire ran… No, he didn't want to think about that. Everything would be over if that happened. They would never rescue Yoichi. They would never rescue Mitsuba. They would never rescue Shinya. And he would never be able to kill Yuu for the trouble he put everyone through, letting them all get captured by the vampires.

Much to his relief, the vampire exited the room without so much as a backward glance, he only hoped that it meant that they had escaped notice. After waiting several minutes, he gestured for the others to follow him, he had a choice to either try and sneak across the entire room and risk being seen, or he could try and bolt across the entire room and risk being heard.

He chose the latter option. It was the longest fifteen seconds of his life, he could hear every heartbeat emthump/em in his head. Every footstep seemed to take an eternity to land. A cold sweat slowly began to drip down his back. He could hear the others footsteps echoing behind him, they seemed as loud as thunder in the empty room.

Finally, he reached the other side of the room and ducked behind an arch, Guren did the same, and he was followed by Shinoa, who apparently had been too slow for Guren. They all panted and leaned against the wall, gulping breaths of sweet, sweet air. After a minute, they all got their erratic breathing somewhat in control, not gasping desperately at least.

Following the map he had memorized prior to this mission, he made his way down the hallway that they had ducked into and into a darker room, not quite as large, but still impressive. At the center of this alcove was a staircase that led downward into darkness.

Naturally, they decided it was the best place to go. They stepped forward, at the tip of the stairs looking down. Glancing at each other, they all stepped down together. They were going to save their team. They delved deeper into the vampire city. _I'm going to save you, Yoichi. This I swear on my life. I will save you even if it means my life._

Mika watched in slow motion as Yuu plunged the knife into his stomach. He saw every drop of blood that came out of the wound, he saw the grimace of pain on his face. There was desperation in his eyes as he told his friend to get everyone out. There had only been one time that he had ever seen that look on Yuu's face. And that was four years ago when he had told Yuu to run and leave him behind.

That look should never have been on his face at all. Every time he wore that face, it was because of something that vampires had done. Something that vampires had done. He was a vampire. Something that he had done. He had told Yuu to run and leave him there. He had tortured Yuu and his friends. It was his fault that Yuu was doing this. Everything was his fault.

All of a sudden, he was free of Ferid's grip. He was still incredibly dizzy, and his footing wasn't quite right. He slipped on the slick, bloody floor several times, making his way to Yuu. He needed to make it to Yuu. Krul was standing behind him. Whatever she was going to do, it wasn't going to be good. Her figure seemed to flicker in and out of existence. He knew that she wasn't really there. In any case, he needed to get to Yuu. He needed to help Yuu.

His way was blocked by a very familiar face. There was Akane. Right in front of him. The children of the orphanage were all there, they made a protective ring around Yuu.

 _Sorry, Mika_ the children spoke in unison, _We can't let you go any further. We need to protect him from vampires. We need to protect him from you. Haven't you put him through enough already? Don't you think it would be so much better if you just went and died? You're a monster. And monsters can only bring destruction. Just look at us._ The children in front of him all became pale, their necks dripping blood like they had that night. Their dead eyes stared at him without compassion. _Come to think of it, it was_ your idea _to try and escape that day wasn't it? It's all your fault. It is all your fault, and soon, Yuu-_ nii _-chan will join us. And it's all your fault, Mika."_

Tears sprung from his eyes, of course, it was all his fault. He was a vampire, a monster. And because of him, Yuu was dying.

And yet, Yuu was smiling at him. Despite everything that he had ever done, Yuu was smiling at him through the orphans. Mika watched as Yuu's eyes slowly rolled into the back of his head, his smile slackened and he fell off to the side, his spirit leaving him.

Mika stumbled through the orphans, barely feeling the bodies as he blundered through them. He needed to reach Yuu before he fell. He needed to make it. He needed to make it. He _needed_ to make it.

He made it, but just barely. He cradled Yuu's head against his chest, it was so limp, like a newborn's, with barely enough strength to keep it straight. His skin was pale and coated with a layer of sweat, but Mika couldn't care less. All he could care about was the knife embedded in Yuu's stomach, leaking blood. He could feel Yuu try to swallow, and he looked down at the green eyes that he had loved for eight whole years. They were slightly crinkled around the edges, a sign of a genuine smile.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." Mika whispered, "please, Yuu-chan. Please, don't leave me. I beg of you. Don't go where I can't follow. Please. You need to look at me, okay?" Yuu was just looking up at him, there was joy in his eyes. "No, Yuu-chan, I just got you back, okay? So we need to stay with each other a little longer, You can't leave me here alone. I can't let you go over there alone. Please, Yuu-chan."

Yuu coughed weakly, a small string of blood appearing at the corner of his mouth. "Don't worry about me, Mika. I-I've got Asura- Asura-" a slight look of confusion spread across his face as he struggled for a name. "Yeah, I've got him. He'll help me. He's always helped me in the past, this-this is nothing."

His eyes slowly began to drift shut, and Mika tried to hold them. "No, Yuu-chan, you need to stay awake. Hey, you know what? Let's play a game. Like we would always do with the kids. We'll play a game."

"O-okay, M-Mika, what... game will we p-play?"

"Let's play a brain game. Okay? Something to keep us up. Can you think of anything?"

"Y-yeah, let's- let's play the twenty-questions game. I-it needs to- to be something in- in this room… Okay, Mika? You- start. Find… something, anything in… this room."

Mika frantically looked around the room. What could he use? What would confuse him enough to keep him awake, and confuse him so that he wouldn't give up? He couldn't do anything in this room. Everything was blood covered and painful. He looked around until he finally found something. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Is it red?"

"Only in a few places."

"Is it bigger than the beds at the orphanage?"

"Yes."

"Is it smaller than the cathedral we would read books in?"

"Yes."

"Can… you read it?"

"Easily."

"Are you sure it's in this room?"

"Positive, I can look at it from here."

"Did that count as a question?"

"Yes, and that one too."

"How... many questions am I at?"

"Seven, with that one."

"Can you eat it?"

"If you're determined and you really, really want to," Mika responded, snickering.

"Is it… bigger than me?"

"No, it's about your size."

"What… color is it?"

"Questions are only supposed to be 'yes' or 'no', but I'll tell you that it's many different colors."

"Is it soft?

"Yeah. It's really soft."

"Can I see it?"

"Yeah. I guess you can."

"Is it hot?"

"Yeah, extremely hot."

"How many am I at now, Mika?"

"Fourteen now. Hey, come on, you gotta stay awake so that you can find out what it is, Yuu-chan"

"Would I like it?"

"Yeah, I think you would."

"Do you like it?"

"Without a doubt."

"Mika. Mika, I'm cold. I'm never cold. I would always give my blanket to the kids. Why am I cold now?"

"I'm sure it's nothing, Yuu-chan. Just a draft. I feel it too." And Mika did feel cold. He felt icy tendrils grip his heart as he pulled Yuu closer, trying to transfer his body heat. Trying to make Yuu warmer, anything for Yuu.

"Did that last one count, Mika?"

"No, but that one did. You're at seventeen."

"Can I touch it?"

"Yeah, you can always touch it."

"I can touch it right now?"

"Yeah, you are, Yuu-chan."

"Can you give me a clue?"

"I love it. I love it with all my heart."

"Mika. I don't know what it is. Mika. That was twenty, right? What was it?"

"It's you, Yuu-chan. I love you with all my heart. I do. I really really do. So, please, please, please. Don't leave me just yet." He could feel the tears spring from his eyes and stream off of his face and on to the one below his. He tried to stop them but found that they only came more and more the more he tried to stop him.

"Mika. Mika, guess what? I love you too." Yuu was smiling, and the tears dripping from Mika's face were mingling with the tears on Yuu's face and falling to the floor together. For an instant, Yuu's eyes held pure joy. They sparkled with it and despite the circumstances, he couldn't help but smile down at the eyes that he had loved for eight years.

Suddenly, they rapidly became dull, they stared into one place, and the one place wasn't Mika. It wasn't any one place in particular. The smile on Yuu's face wavered and faded, only leaving a ghost of what it once was. His breathing became labored, but only for one last shudder as he pulled all the air he could into his lungs. What little tension was in his body melted away and Mika could feel the cool skin beneath his fingers. The frail body beneath him let out its final breath in a room full of blood and horrible memories, a room not unlike his childhood home.

Mika screamed. Agony filling his voice as it tore through his throat. Every single feeling that he had felt in the past four years spilled out. Everything that he had ever felt for the past four years spilled out. He never showed his emotions, emotions were weak. He was weak. He pulled the cooling body closer and closer to him, trying to get it to warm up. Trying to get the smiling boy to wake up and tell him it was all a joke. Something, anything. He would do anything to bring him back.

As he clung to the body of the man he loved, he felt three figures approach him from behind. One was tall, one was short, and the other was cautious. The cautious man approached him and tentatively reached to console him. On reflex and without thinking, Mika flung his arm to the side, shoving the man as far away from him as he could. "Don't touch him! Don't you dare touch him with your filthy hands! Don't you dare touch Yuu-chan. Please. Please, just let it all be a dream." He screamed at the top of his lungs."

He hunched his body over Yuu's lifeless form, and begged from the bottom of his heart, "Please. I beg of you, Yuu-chan. Please wake up. I'm so, so, sorry. Just please, please come back to me." He bent his head over the other's and carefully placed his lips on the other's. "Please, Yuu-chan." He moved his lips to Yuu's forehead and whispered his heart to him.

The taller man came and sat down in front of them. He didn't make a move to touch Yuu, but he was still too close. Everyone in this room was too close. "Get. Away. From. Him." MIka hissed.

He felt a surge of power rush through him, like a beat of a drum. It thudded in his chest. He could feel it coursing through his body, and it was like a wave, a wave with so much force it carried him along in it's current, and washed him out to sea. He could feel _something_ inside of him break loose and the vision in one eye disappeared, engulfed in darkness. He felt another surge and as he raised his head, everything went black.

Ferid made his way out of the room. Everything was going the way he had hoped. _Human experimentation, huh?_ He thought to himself, _Well, two can play at that game._ The third step should take effect any moment now.


	8. Chapter 8

Guren felt the tremors a ways away. He felt them shake the ground with all the force of an earthquake, and a big one at that. Something had happened. Something very _very_ bad had happened. He felt his heart accelerate in anticipation and worry. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead and fell to the sides of his face. He squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his hands at his sides, and forced his breathing to stay regular and calm.

 _Think rationally. What are all of the explanations for what has happened? Think, there could have been an earthquake. A building could have collapsed. A noble could have gotten angry and thrown the closest living thing to them into a wall. No! No, stop thinking! None of these thoughts are good or boding well for my current position. Shinya is fine. He's fine! If you believe in something enough, it becomes true, therefore. Shinya is fine_.

Kimizuki suddenly stopped and ducked back from a corner, pressing his body flat against the wall and Shinoa mirrored him. Guren followed their lead, feeling the cool stone against his back, his sweat assisting in cooling his body. He could feel his heart speed up in anticipation of what was going to happen next. Kimizuki held out three fingers without looking at either of them. Then he moved his hand from his shoulder to his face, as if he were pulling up a hood.

 _Three enemies, none of them are nobles. Three of us, two Black Demon Series. The odds are in our favor. The only problem that would arise would be if they were to make noise to bring the others here, so we need to attack swiftly and silently._ Everything went through his mind in the amount of time that it took Kimizuki's hand to fall to the side. Catching Shinoa's eye, he gestured for her to tap Kimizuki and when he had both their attention, he raised a finger to his lips and used the sign for 'ambush'. Understanding, they both nodded their heads.

Kimizuki waited until the vampires had passed them to let his hand fall, normally Guren would be the one calling the shots, but with Kimizuki in the front, it was the most convenient way to run things, and he trusted Kimizuki's judgment.

As soon as his hand fell, Kimizuki rushed to the front of the group, slicing upwards with Kiseki-Ō, and killing the lead vampire before it could react. Shinoa ran to the back to cut off escape, her legs working harder, but not going quite as far as Guren or Kimizuki could go. Guren practically lept to the group, stabbing one through the heart with Mahiru, its red eyes widened in surprise, and its mouth opened in a silent scream as the curse was activated.

Kimizuki and Guren pinned the third vampire between the two blades, Kiseki-Ō biting deep into the vampire's spine, and Mahiru slicing through bone and piercing the heart, Mahiru could become exceptionally sharp when she wanted to.

Before the curse took effect, the hood of the vampire fell back, revealing a masculine face with high cheekbones and framed by light purple locks. The vampire hardly looked more than fifteen, but his red eyes spoke of experience far beyond his appearance. A thin line of blood trailed down from the corner of his mouth and his eyes strained to focus. In the last moments, before he let his final breath leave him, they focused on the violet eyes in front of him, and his lips mouthed two words, "Thank you."

Guren couldn't be sure if he had seen it correctly, and before he could question, the curse consumed the young vampire, burning away his very being and consuming his last bloody smile.

The entirety of the fight had probably lasted no more than thirty seconds, but they all stood there, for over a minute until the tremors shook the ground once more, and this time they were accompanied by a blood-curdling scream that made their hair stand on edge and goosebumps scatter across their skin.

They all looked at each other, and nodded, resuming their prior formation and hiding any evidence as to what had transpired. There was no mention of the boy's delayed death or even the smile that happened afterward. They were all focused on the trials that would surely lie ahead.

The tremors shook again, and this time, they were accompanied by a faint scream. It sounded almost like nails on a chalkboard and raised each and every hair on their necks. Their arms were plastered with tiny bumps and a feeling of foreboding resided within them. Guren subconsciously shivered, his body was rapidly chilling.

They all knew that if they were going to find the rest of their team, it was going to be towards whatever was making that sound. Shinya would be towards whatever was making that sound. So would Yuu, and he was going to kill that child as soon as they were safe again. Anyone who put Shinya in harm's way would be killed by Guren. And Yuu was not an exception.

They made their way to the tremors, which were getting more and more frequent and more and more violent, at one point throwing them all to their knees. They didn't meet any other vampires on the road there, save for a few that were hurrying away from whatever they were heading towards.

The screaming became louder and louder the closer they got, and at one point, Guren thought that he could hear the phrase _sinners_ echo throughout the voice. And later, several layered voices could be heard in the scream, like many people had let loose their torrent of emotions at once. Guren could detect pure and utter anguish within them, he knew because he had heard similar sounds coming from his throat.

Hearing footsteps, Kimizuki ducked behind yet another building in the city, and the rest followed suit. The footfalls were uneven and somewhat labored, like someone had been injured and running for awhile, maybe even limping, some were heavier than others and Guren thought he could detect three pairs.

Their hearts beat faster and faster as the footfalls came closer and closer, sweat-drenched their bodies in anticipation for them to pass. One of the people coming around the corner coughed heavily, it was grating and once the bout started, it didn't stop, until the footfalls stopped.

It was silent but for a grating cough just around the corner and the beating of their hearts.

"I-I think that we've come far enough. We should be safe for now, at least until we get out of this god-forsaken Hell-hole." A familiar voice said from around the corner. A voice that made Guren's heart calm its incessant beating. Relief flooded his senses. That was Shinya's voice. He was safe, now he was just going to kill Yuuichirou at the next opportunity.

Giving in to the impulse, Guren rushed around the corner seeing three figures, a large one with a head of silver hair, a frail one doubled over coughing with blonde hair, and a small one comforting the coughing one with brown hair. Pulling Shinya into a rough embrace, he looked around for the arrogant form with a mop of black hair, but didn't seem to spot it, it didn't matter, he was going to kill him as soon as he found him. Yoichi looked up from consoling Mitsuba and something told Guren something was very wrong. Yoichi was blinking away tears, and Mitsuba wouldn't meet anyone's eyes, even after she got over her fit of coughing.

She wouldn't meet Shinoa's eyes when she came around the corner and didn't react when Shinoa looked her in the eyes. When she finally did, it was slow and methodical. Her eyes looked _dead_ like someone had taken her soul and left her body an empty husk. Shinoa took her hands in hers, clenching them and looking at her.

Kimizuki practically crashed into Yoichi, holding him as close as he dared, with his obvious wounds. He rubbed the brunet's hair with his left hand, and his right hand was wrapped around Yoichi's waist. To Guren, it sounded like Kimizuki was whispering something to Yoichi and something in everyone's demeanor changed.

Shinya's legs collapsed out from underneath him, and he leaned heavily on Guren. Caught unawares, Guren slowly lowered the silver-haired man to the ground, and it was then that he realized that Shinya was shaking. It was subtle at first, but it soon grew and Shinya seemed to lose his grip on reality. He was whispering something unintelligible under his breath to Guren.

It took him a second but Guren finally distinguished the words, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry, Guren." Guren ran his fingers through the soft hair of the crying man. It was a calming gesture that they used to do when they were young and thunderstorms were the worst thing that they could think of. Guren tried to shush him and tell him it was okay but soon found it useless, because all that did was cause Shinya to shake his head against Guren's chest and say something like it not being. He knew that it was just best for Shinya to let it out and for him to stay calm, it was the only way he knew he would calm down.

After five or so minutes of this, Shinya's weeping retreated to sobbing, and his sobbing retreated to crying, and soon his crying stopped altogether. Pulling Shinya away, Guren wiped at the tears that stained Shinya's face, he needed to know what had happened. Waiting patiently for Shinya to start, Guren continued to wipe at Shinya's face.

"I'm sorry, Guren." The words were soft, almost inaudible, but Guren could see it on his lips and in his eyes. "I'm so, so, sorry. I didn't want anything like this to happen." Shinya swallowed heavily before he continued, "Guren. Yuuichirou Hyakuya is-"

And that's where Guren's auditory senses cut off. He saw Shinya's lips form the word 'dead', but he couldn't believe it. This was some joke that Shinya was pulling on him, anytime now, Yuu was going to come around the corner laughing and smiling like he always was. There was no way that Yuu could be dead. He just couldn't.

There was just so much meaning behind one word. It was insane just how one word could turn your entire world upside-down. One word could make everything change. There was no one to yell at him, no one to laugh at him and call him an idiot. No one to be _Yuu_. There are some people that you can't replace in your life. Yuu is one of those people. _Was_ one of those people.

He was reminded of when Mahiru had told him what she was doing. He was reminded of her. She was another person you just couldn't forget. No matter how hard you try. He was reminded of her dead body in his hands slowly cooling because of a simple little cut. A cut that he had given to her, and he had been reminded of just how fragile a human life was.

He was reminded of everything that had happened to him with that one word. His father telling him his mother was dead. His father growing cold towards him ever since then. Mahiru coming to tell him that his father had passed away. Mahiru's death. The blood on his hands. Everything. Everything went through his head when he saw that one word. He saw one word, and his world was turned upside down.

He could hear Shinya calling him, calling his name telling him that he was sorry. He could feel Shinya's hands on his shoulders, begging him to look at him. Vaguely, he could see Shinya's image, but it was blurry and unfocused. There was a strange ringing in his ears and it blocked out all other sounds, and his body gained a certain numbness like he was surrounded like cotton.

He was snapped back into reality with the horrendous screech, it was closer this time, and it made his skin crawl with goosebumps. The three that had been missing turned their heads in horror in the direction of the sound, horror, and panic. Guren had trained these guys, if they were scared of something, then it was worth being scared of. Maybe this was the thing that had killed Yuu.

Slowly, he got to his feet, Mahiru already drawn, even though he couldn't remember when he had done that. He could hear his voice inside of him, exactly like that voice he remembered from when they had grown up together.

 _Guren, I can help you._

 _I don't need your stinking help, Mahiru, whatever this thing is_ , I _want to kill it. I want to see the face of the man that killed it, not a man with the decor of a demon, not a vampire, a man._

 _Guren, you're not thinking this through._

 _No, you're not thinking this through, Mahiru. Although, I will need your help, later on, not your possession, your help._

 _I've already helped you enough today, I killed that one little vampire for you, you know, the one that was smiling. You should thank me more often, you know I do more for you than you could ever imagine. What's the worst that could happen from letting me run loose for a little while?_ /em

Guren left the conversation at that, walking forward towards whatever was making that horrid screeching. He could hear everyone screaming at him to come back, but he paid them no heed. The only thing he cared about was whatever was coming towards his family. He had told Yuu that they were family, and family always protects family, so why couldn't Guren protect Yuu like he told him he would?

He could feel anger rising in his chest. His family had been cut short. He was going to cut someone else's family short.

Unbidden, he could feel Mahiru's power flowing through his body, of course, she would help, after all, she loved him. And she loved his body, she loved when she could go out and take it for a spin, it was always fun for her.

The scream came closer and closer and finally rounded the corner, a small form, no more than fifteen years old peeked its body out from the corner. It held a messy mop of blond hair and a vampire's uniform.

And in its arms, it carried a limp body of someone Guren knew very well. The raven hair was messed like normal, and he wore his usual black uniform. Guren remembered the first time that he wore it and how he wouldn't take it off for a day.

Big, black wings sprouted from its back, they were torn and incomplete, like a demon's. Or maybe someone had shot a hole through a bat's wings. They were and rigid, no good for flying, and a black mist seemed to emanate off of them, upwards until they dispersed.

But the most terrifying wasn't the figure itself. It wasn't the body that hung from its arms. It wasn't the wings that sprouted from its back or the atrocious scream that was wrenched from its throat. As terrifying as those things were, they were nothing compared to the figure's eyes.

Darker than a night with no moon, and crying black tears.


	9. Chapter 9

Mitsuba was more tired than she had ever felt. There was nothing that could have stopped her from falling into Shinoa's arms as soon as she felt her arms around her.

"Woah, are you alright? Gotten over your fit of coughing?" Shinoa asked as soon as she discovered that she could safely lower both of them to the floor. She smiled calmly as she rubbed Mitsuba's back, keeping her from coughing again hopefully.

Mitsuba wrapped her arms around Shinoa, burying her head in her neck. Everything that she had seen was pouring out, the red room, the crazy vampire, Yuu's sacrifice, and the sprouting of the wings as she called it.

As soon as everything with Yuu had happened, the blond vampire had _convulsed_. It was the most unnerving thing that she had seen, he let out a scream of blood-curdling anguish and-

She closed her eyes against the memory, it was far too graphic, and she knew that there was no way that she was ever going to forget it, but she wanted the memory to fade as quickly as possible so that it wouldn't be as vivid when she came around to confront it once more.

Of course nothing was fading, it was all there, whenever she closed her eyes, whenever she saw another vampire, and it was all there, every splatter of blood, every voice coming from that horrible mouth. Everything was there, right there in her mind, and she knew it would never disappear, it would never fade, because there were somethings that you try to remember, but there are somethings that you can never forget.

Shinoa was quietly rubbing at her back, not speaking or anything, but she was just _there_ , because she knew that's all that she could do for her right now. She knew that when Mitsuba was ready, she would tell her.

After a minute, Mitsuba calmed down enough for her to form coherent words. She was quiet for a while, and then Shinoa quietly prompted her.

"Hey, Mitsu-chan, it's okay, I'm here. Do, you want to talk about it?" She made her voice so quiet, so that only Mitsuba would be able to hear her words, she wouldn't blame her if she hadn't heard her at all, but it was soon discredited at the small nod of her head.

Mitsuba pulled back from Shinoa slightly, leaving an imprint of warmth on her skin where she had been, and began her horrid recount.

"Well, so I guess that I fell asleep in the camp, and I just woke up in this room. It was a really big room, and it was all red. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, everything, it stunk. The entire room smelled of wet metal and bodily… fluids." Mitsuba was slowing down, trying to keep the images that she was going to describe next out of her vision. "And… In-in the corner, there were, umm, there were these bodies. Dead bodies. Like they had just been tossed out with the trash and like, they were just tossed out there like empty containers and the-the smell of decaying flesh was so powerful, and you could see their wounds, some of their flesh just-hung off of their bones."

Shinoa shushed her then, trying to keep her from hyperventilating, like she was going to do, and to calm her down after her rambling. Either something else had happened right then, or the memories further into the day were still present in her mind, it sounded like she had only started.

"So, when, when I came to the first time, there was this silver-haired guy, and he was thoroughly insane. He laughed and laughed and then he just put this liquid into my veins. It was really, really painful, like my skin was on fire and freezing at the same time. After what felt like hours, it finally stopped, and I was being semi-supported by Yoichi. But-" She swallowed thickly, "But, o-on the floor. On the floor there was-there was a figure in white, umm, and h-he was he was curled over, umm. H-he was curled over Yuu-san. But, no-no one seemed concerned, so, I-I just went with it.

"Th-then, the other one, the one with silver hair, the one that put whatever it was in me, he came in. And he said something-something about a game. And he just _kicked_ Yuu-san. He just kicked him clear across the room. And, this isn't a small room, Shinoa, this is a huge room. But, after that. After that, something, something happened." Her eyes welled with tears and her lip began to pout slightly, "A-and Yuu-san, he-he said something-something about, a-a sacrifice. And-and then, I-I couldn't see all that well and-"

She stopped there, clearly what had happened was that Yuu had done something, something that cost him his life, and because of that, Shinya, Yoichi, and Mitsuba had been able to get away. It wasn't rocket science,but it had clearly shaken her up, to the point that she didn't want to talk about it, it was worse than when she got someone on her team killed because of her.

"And after-after that, the-the-the vampire, the one th-that was over-over Yuu. He-he _changed_ and there were-were like, black wings. A-and these, these wings, there was like, a-a _ripping_ sound the sound of flesh ripping. Then, then the bones started shifting and-and popping, you could hear them. And- the wings just got l-larger and l-larger, just _growing_.

But the wings, they-they looked t-torn, and broken. If they had ever been meant to fly, they weren't going to do it now, and they expanded and flapped, but then the-the blond guy, when he looked up, it was like it wasn't him anymore, his face was expressionless, actually, it might have been a little pained. But-but his eyes. Shinoa, he had _black eyes_."

Shinoa calmed her down as best she could, she had been going too fast at the end, and her rambling had turned into something that she could barely follow. Mitsuba was back to a crying mess at the memory, and Shinoa felt awful at what she had made her do by recounting the memory, what she had stirred.

The screech shook the walls, every bit of it a ballad to agony, a solemn swear that had been broken, and a boy who was beat every day until his spirit broke. Shinoa could hear each and every one of those feelings and experiences as it shook through her bones and Mitsuba pushed herself deeper into the embrace.

This must have been the thing that Mitsuba had talked about, it must have been something else, something different. A true monster, some vampires could still feel, some could show emotion or disinterest, this thing would never be considered human again. Whatever it was, it was far beyond the realms of a monster, Shinoa could tell in the depths of its voice.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Guren rise, there was something _missing_ in his eyes, something that was there usually. And then she saw Kimizuki rise, his hand still in Yoichi's as he knelt back down to console him before leaving again.

Then, she saw what they had seen before her, a monster. A monster carrying the body of one of her family. She had trained Yuu. She had taught him. She had grown to care for him, and enjoy his company. She had grown and watched him grow, and now he was gone. She would continue to grow without him. There would be times in the future where she would turn back to laugh at her proficiency, but he wouldn't be there. He would be decaying, in the ground somewhere. Cold, he would never be warm again.

She had never felt anger before. She had never felt fury or rage. But what she felt then, in that moment, with the realization that Yuu was gone she knew immediately as anger. She could feel it writhe in her chest, a hot bubble that wanted to burst and loose everything that she had ever felt onto this monster that had taken a member of her family from her.

This thing, this monster had taken Yuu from her. So, what would she do?

What she was trained to do. Kill the monsters that plagued this world.

Kimizuki couldn't stop, he knew he was probably crushing Yoichi, but somehow, that didn't matter to him. He wanted to pull Yoichi closer to him, he wanted to make sure that he was really there, but soon, Yoichi seemed to collapse like he had run ten miles and only now had the time to rest.

Kimizuki could see the same thing happen to Mitsuba and Shinya, but the only one who mattered at the moment was Yoichi. Kimizuki pulled him away for a few seconds and what he saw crushed his heart.

It looked like Yoichi had been through Hell. His uniform was torn open, and deep scars littered his chest, it didn't even look like they had stopped bleeding yet. He had bruises around his wrists and it looked like one of them was broken, or at least dislocated. Yoichi's face was littered with tears that streamed from his eyes. Kimizuki looked at the eyes that stared at him, they weren't the eyes he knew.

The eyes he knew were always full of joy and happiness, they always made him want to smile. The eyes that looked at him now seemed to be broken, like they had seen too much. The eyes that he saw now looked helpless. There was no little glint in Yoichi's eyes, it was like they had lost some of their life. Kimizuki hated seeing eyes like that, because he knew what someone had to go through to get like that.

"What the Hell did they put you through, Yoichi?" Kimizuki asked the smaller man, pain audible on his voice, he could even feel a small lump forming in his throat, and fury heating in his chest. No one, _no one_ was going to hurt Yoichi and get away with it. Yoichi turned to look at him, there was a certain reluctance in his eyes, like Yoichi was too pained by the memory, or maybe it was something so horrible, that he wouldn't even tell Kimizuki.

Yoichi's head fell, bringing his eyes to a spot on his hands that he suddenly found incredibly interesting. "Kimizuki-" His voice sounded hoarse, and forced, like it wasn't comfortable for him to speak. "Kimizuki, I'm fine." He raised his head, and forced a little bit of life into his eyes once more. He smiled which usually calmed Kimizuki down, but not this time. What had happened?

"Like Hell you are. Yoichi. What did they do to you? I will get them back, I will get them back for every scratch they put on you. Tell me, Yoichi." Kimizuki could feel his fury rising up out of his chest, he could feel it, it was like a ticking time bomb, it would explode. He wanted to be around the monster that did this to Yoichi when it did.

"They-they didn't do anything to me. Well, at least-at least not compared to-" His voice failed him then, cutting him off in the middle of his sentence, and he had lowered his head, so Kimizuki couldn't read his lips.

It didn't matter. It was obvious, the only one who wasn't there right then was Yuu. Something had happened to Yuu. Something bad enough for the light in Yoichi's eyes to fade like they had.

If something had happened to Yuu, then that meant that he was in such a bad shape that they couldn't have gotten him out like they were, with them weakened and wounded as they were.

If something were to happen to Yuu, then it might be the end of their team. Yuu was like the center pole, he was Yoichi's close friend, his first friend really. Mitsuba and him were like oil and water, but it was because of their similarities. Shinoa clearly looked at him with affection, and admiration. Guren treated him like the son he never had. Shinya liked him because Guren wanted to protect him.

Kimizuki, well, he himself really liked the guy secretly, they looked like they got along worse than Mitsuba and him. He thought Yuu was a great guy, even if he got on his nerves more often than not, and even if he never shut up. He protected the family that he had because that was all he had left. That was more than Kimizuki could do most of the time.

"Yoichi, Yoichi, what happened to Yuu?"

Yoichi's eyes widened and the tears started again. HIs body started to shake again and he threw himself around Kimizuki. "He's-he's gone! Kimizuki, Yuu-kun is gone! He's gone! We- I- I couldn't- I couldn't save him. I tried, I tried, I tried! But I still couldn't save him! I keep going through everything in my mind, trying to figure out what I could have done. There's nothing I could have done, Kimizuki! Why is there nothing I could have done?" His voice had started off violent and loud, but it soon subsided to soft shaking, and whispering.

Kimizuki held him close, rubbing small circles on his back and running his fingers through his hair. He rocked him back and forth, trying to do anything he could to calm the smaller man. He closed his eyes and started humming an old song that he knew from before. It was something he remembered from his mother, and it was the same tune that he hummed to Mirai when she was having trouble sleeping. He had long forgotten the words, but the melody was still there.

Yoichi's shudders slowed and stopped eventually, his breathing becoming regular once more. The tears soaked through his uniform, but Kimizuki didn't mind, he just kept rocking and humming, even after the tears and shudders had stopped.

Yoichi pulled back to look at Kimizuki, a little more life in his eyes, and this time it wasn't forced. He opened his mouth to say thank you when a horrendous shriek echoed through the city. The voices piled on top of each other, each expressing a new form of agony and despair. Yoichi's head snapped to the direction that it had come from, his eyes widening in terror so much that KImizuki worried for his vision.

Yoichi's arm tightened around Kimizuki and his shaking resumed, this time in horror and anticipation. He connected the dots, this must be what had hurt him and what had killed Yuu. He hated that word, _killed_ it made it all the more real. Yuu was gone, dead, deceased, departed, _gone_ , whichever word you picked, it still didn't bring him back.

Whatever this thing was, it was going to pay and pay dearly for making Yoichi suffer like this. He saw Guren walking toward the sound, Mahiru already drawn, and Shinya begging him to come back. There was confidence in his eyes, there was no way that he was backing down, so Kimizuki saw no harm in assisting him in his vendetta, it was his vendetta as well.

He could feel Yoichi trying to hold him back when he rose from his place next to him. He couldn't bear the thought of trying to wrench himself away from Yoichi, he wouldn't be able to handle that, instead, he gave him his arm and then his hand, slowly releasing him to ease himself away.

"No, Kimizuki, this is something even you can't handle. It's a real, honest-to-God monster. Please don't go, I don't know if I could take it if something were to happen to you. Please, I've already lost two members of my family, please, please just don't leave me." Yoichi begged him, he had held onto the tips of his fingers in desperation, begging the only thing that was keeping him grounded to stay with him. Begging the first person that had helped him to come back. Begging anything and everything to just go back to normal. He wanted Tomoe back. He wanted his parents back. He wanted Yuu back. He just wanted everything that had gone wrong in his life to go back to before his life was so messed up, then maybe, he would be happy.

Kimizuki squatted down so that he was again eye-level with him. "Hey, look at me. I promise, I swear on my life. I swear on my life that Guren and I are going to kill that honest-to-God monster. I swear on every breath I take that I will come back. I swear on my future, that I will avenge Yuu. I swear. You just need to trust me, and wait for me here now, and I promise I will come back."

Kimizuki's voice was soft and genuine. A voice to put you at ease.

The perfect voice to mask a lie with.


	10. Chapter 10

Black

Everything was black.

Mika could've sworn his eyes were open. But then, why couldn't he see? He needed to see in order to get to Yuu. And he needed to see Yuu, so therefore he needed to see.

He reached up to rub his eyes, but discovered his body had a feeling of weightlessness. It was like it was there but it wasn't there at the same time, he could tell that his body was there and how it was oriented, but he couldn't move his body at will, if he tried to move his hand, his orientation wouldn't move. He felt _disconnected_ , like no matter how hard he actually tried to do something, it wasn't going to work. The command to move was still there, it registered in his brain, but it was like his limbs didn't acknowledge the command.

After experimenting with different limbs, he tried to visualize where he was and what he was doing. If he imagined himself upright, he suddenly was, he could feel the shift in weight and gravity's effect on his body. He tried again and imagined himself raising his right arm, and it worked, he could feel the shift in his movement to raise his hand.

He tried imagining himself moving forward, not walking, running, or swimming. But just _moving_. He moved through space like he was choosing in the direction he was falling. It was exactly like moving, but not like moving at all, he told his body where to move, and it moved. It wasn't instantaneous, but it wasn't drawn out either.

His mind's eye seemed to be drawing him towards something. He couldn't tell where it was, or what it was, or even if it really existed, he just had a sudden urge to go _there_. And even when he tried to resist it, he just moved more towards it, it was like he had no choice in the matter, like he would be drawn to it no matter what.

He could tell when he arrived at whatever had been drawing him closer because his body suddenly heated up, before there had been nothing, no hot no cold, like an absence of temperature. But whatever this was, it was hot. His mind's eye reached out to feel around for whatever it was that he couldn't see.

Suddenly, his hand met an object, it was cylindrical metal. But the most vexing thing about it was the fact that it was as cold as ice, the surrounding space was burning, it created quite a unique sensation. Mika made his hands explore the object, relieved that it didn't drift away from him as soon as he had hit it with his hand.

Upon closer examination, the object was not entirely cylindrical and varied in size, the largest part seemed to fan out and the entire object was hollow. It seemed straight and narrow at one end and at the other, it was blocky and still round.

Trying to figure out what this object was, Mika imagined himself opening his eyes, and seeing clearly, and it happened.

The world was just as black as he thought it was, maybe even darker because when you imagine something, you don't always imagine the worse. It was like he had stumbled into the void, there was nothing else and he almost willed his eyes shut before he remembered why they were opened in the first place.

He looked down at his hands and although he actually couldn't see his _body_ , he could see what was in his hands. Such a simple item that he couldn't believe he hadn't already guessed.

A trumpet.

Suddenly, he felt the sensation of arms embracing him from behind and he jolted in surprise. He willed himself to turn and found smiling green eyes staring at him. But they were different than all of the other times that he had seen them. They seemed dull. Like all of the life and joy had been sucked out of them. They may have been smiling, but that was not what the person behind those eyes was feeling.

They say the eyes are windows to the soul, and if these eyes held any indication, Mika didn't want to see the person behind those eyes.

"Hey, hey Mika!" That was the voice that he recognized, that was the voice that was supposed to accompany those eyes but like the eyes, there was something faded, something missing. The words sounded happy and bubbly at first, but to a practiced ear, they were forced and ugly.

"Oi! Mika! What's wrong, Mika?" He could see the rest of the body now, it looked so painful. His body looked like it had been through a meat grinder and then hung out to dry. Horizontal and vertical slashed ran along every part of his body, blood still dripping from each wound. Then, there was one in the center of his stomach, one that was absolutely _gushing_ blood, it seemed to spurt with a heartbeat that Mika knew was impossible in any normal world.

"But, you see here, this isn't a normal world, Mika. It's a world that _you_ created. Everything here, everything here, is of your design. No one else's, only yours. Which is why I find this place a little unsettling, the Mika I know was bright and cheery, he had a bright and wonderful imagination. The Mika I knew would have an extravagant world, with every element thought through and put here with care. The Mika I knew wouldn't have created this desolate place with a trumpet and a memory of his best friend. No, you're not the Mika I knew."

"Y-Yuu-chan! No, please. That's not what this is. I may not be the Mika you remember, but you're not the Yuu-chan I remember either! You, you aren't like this! Trust me, I know you better than practically anyone else. I spent four years of my life, _four years_ hoping and praying that you were alright, that you had gotten away. Finally, I get my reunion with you, and then you go and-and-and, then, you just go and- you just go and _kill yourself?_ For _them;_ people I don't even know!"

"Yes, and you know the reason that I was even in that position, Mika?" Yuu spat vehemently, "It's because of monsters like you! The vampires! _They_ did this to me. _You_ did this to me. It's all because of you. It was _you_ who let Ferid drink your blood. It was _you_ that suggested we try for the outside world. It was _you_ who told me to run when I ran. It was _you_ who did _this_ to _me!_ It was _you_ that killed all of _us_." With every emphasized word, the ghost of Yuu punched a mangled finger at Mika's essence, causing more pain than would have been possible in his corporeal body.

Yuu seemed to float slightly backward, gesturing widely with his hands. Behind him, the bodies of every child form. He could see Akane and the others, all the night that everything had happened, their necks were torn open, and their bodies so pale they were gray.

Then, they started to change. Their hair thinned and began to fall out, and their eyes became increasingly concave. The skin around them seemed to tighten, their faces becoming one step away from just skulls. Mika could see the ribcage of Yuu, with his skin so tight it looked like he hadn't eaten a thing from the day he had been born.

Their skin started to tear, allowing a rust colored powder to spill from their bodies into empty space. Their hair falling in gruesome clumps, and their eyes dulling and deadening.

Mika tried to will his eyes shut, to stop whatever this was, to make it all go away.

"Come now, Mika." The children all said in unison it was their normal everyday voice, full of laughter and cheer, which was probably more terrifying than anything else. "Don't turn away on us now, not after all you've done for us. Come on, let's have fun together one more time now before we fade away."

Mika started to panic, trying to get away from whatever they were, but whenever he moved, they seemed to follow him, just standing there and in unison, they all raised their arms in a show of love and forgiveness. There was no way that he was going to hug them, after all, they were just figments of his imagination, they weren't _really_ there.

"Mika, do you _really_ think we aren't here? We exist in this world of your creation. So, right now, we are as real as you."

Mika tried to grip his head in his hands, but in the panic, he couldn't concentrate enough to actually will it to happen. The bodies disappeared, but their voices now seemed all around him, berating him at every turn, never letting up, they seemed to be _inside_ his head.

The feeling of his chest began to constrict, suffocating him in his terror. The children draped themselves over and around his body, their voices reverberating throughout his mind. His breathing became shorter and shorter, as the voices became louder and louder, drowning him in their voices. There was no need to breathe when they surrounded him, there was only their voices.

The trumpet was still cold in his hand, the surrounding air still burning hot, but the contrast seemed to become more and more apparent. The metal began to get colder, and the air began to get hotter, a sort of insistent throb resounded through it, calling him further. It willed Mika to raise the trumpet to his lips, Mika didn't want any of this, he just wanted for the world to be normal again.

He tried to resist whatever it was that was telling him that he needed to blow the trumpet but to no avail. The trumpet resounded throughout the void, echoing off of unseen walls. It went away and came back, growing in volume and there was a throbbing that accompanied the sound that grew and shook his bones. A throbbing not unlike a heartbeat, whatever this was, it was _alive_.

With all of this happening, Mika managed to shut his eyes against it. He tried to will the trumpet away, but he found he could not, and suddenly, it all went quiet.

He felt a white-hot pain around his shoulder blades like there was something like a spear was stuck there. It felt like there had been acid sprayed in his eyes, they were burning even when he tried to blink them away. His legs felt like they had been wading through molasses for hours.

But his arms, they felt like they were leaden with over two hundred pounds. There was the burning ache of overuse in them, and he knew there was something in them, but he didn't know what. He found that he could move of his own free will now, but he didn't drop whatever he was carrying, there was something in his subconscious that warned him not to, no matter how hard it burned, and no matter how heavy his burden became, he could _not_ drop it.

Forcing his eyes open through the pain, he was able to look at his surrounding area. He was no longer in the red room. Instead, he was in what seemed to be a hallway, the arches reached up from the floor to the ceiling, seemingly for decoration only. The hallway reached far into the distance, so much so that it seemed enveloped in darkness.

Feeling the ache in his arms, Mika looked down and almost screamed. It was Yuu. _His_ Yuu. Only, it wasn't. His Yuu wasn't this pale. His Yuu was always smiling. His Yuu didn't look helpless, and limp. His Yuu always had this bright twinkle in his eye, a twinkle that proclaimed that he had a plan, he was always planning something.

But this wasn't _his_ Yuu, Yuu would never go to sleep before him and the other kids, he would stay up long hours making sure that everyone was there and quietly asleep before indulging himself, making sure the others got their food before he ate. No, his Yuu would likely never wake again, no matter what Mika could do, and that made his heart freeze.

He let out a scream filled with all of his anguish, all of his heartbreak, he had finally found his friend again, and look at what had become of him. The scream didn't even sound human anymore, it wasn't his scream. And that was the moment he realized that what he had feared for four long years was true. He had become a monster.

It was all his fault this mess, nothing would have happened if that day four years ago, he had just given up.

But no, what was he thinking? This wasn't _his_ fault. It was the human's.

It was the humans that had stuck their nose where it didn't belong. It was the humans that had gotten themselves and Yuu captured. It was their fault that he had to carry his last friend's lifeless body through this hallway. It was all their fault and he wasn't going to let them interfere more than they had already.

But it was also the vampire's fault. It was their fault for infecting the world, it was their fault that the humans reacted this way. It was their fault that he had become a monster meant to torture his only friend. He would kill them, he would kill anyone who stood in his way. He would make the world feel what he was feeling.

His vision darkened once more in a reaction to his sudden resolve. This time he was okay with it, he would surrender to the monster within him. Before his vision went completely black, he saw the hallway widen into a room, and three figures stood in his way. Before he was completely gone, he let a smile slip.


	11. Chapter 11

Yoichi watched with horrid enchantment, as Kimizuki, Shinoa, and Guren stood fast against a monster from some of his worst nightmares. What had once been the innocent face of the one who had held Yuu so lovingly as he grew ever colder had become a face wracked with anguish and despair.

Suddenly, like a wave that washed over him, his face became serene. It was expressionless. The blank face more disconcerting than the anguish that had been there mere moments before, his eyes were empty, but they bore into the souls of those who held their stare for more than a moment.

Mitsuba and Shinya managed to inch their way over to him, leaning heavily on the wall behind them while they watched as their caring counterparts hale and powerful stood bearing arms in the path of the monster.

Words seemed beyond them all at the time, they could do nothing more than watch as the battle started. Afterall, the beginning of a battle could decide it as easily as dice tumbled from a cup. But Yoichi knew that this battle was going to take more than two of a kind, they would need them all to come up the same if they had any chance at all.

The first move was made by Kimizuki, as he leapt into the air to cut off any chance of the demon's escape. An innocent enough gesture, but it was cut short as one of the black wings swept upwards, catching Kimizuki by the shoulder, skewing his landing zone and sending him into the wall.

Kimizuki hit the wall with a thud and fell to the floor in a rustle of fabric, but before Yoichi could raise his voice in alarm, he was already climbing to his feet, even with his shoulder stained red along with a certain spot on the wall. He still raised Kiseki-Ō in defiance and Yoichi felt a little bit proud to see him stand up like that.

The next strike was held by both Shinoa and Guren, in a divide-and-conquer strategy trapping Mika between them. Guren was much faster than Shinoa, however and reached him before her, this also meant that he met the demon's wing before her as well. However, Guren was wise to the trick and twisted in mid-air, moving Mahiru-no-yo just in time to block the inky wing from hitting him. The block struck the wing at a vulnerable joint and dislocated the tip of it.

A ripping sound more horrendous more than anything he had heard before accompanied the weight of the wing as it bore downward. It almost seemed like he had split the night itself, a portion of the wing now hung limply from the ulna. With the severance of the nerves, Mika let out a horrendous scream, turning to Kimizuki who had attempted to strike where it was weakest, and causing the entire room to shake and stones to fall from the ceiling. But with this scream came knowledge, the knowledge that it could be hurt. They could win this fight.

The first die cast came up a six.

Kimizuki knew that if Kiseki-Ō didn't heal his wounds and soon, he would be out of the fight, and then what good would his promise to Yoichi have been?

 _Damn you demon, would you just stop the bleeding? I need this fight._

Kiseki-Ō didn't even bother answering, but Kimizuki could feel his wound warm as tissue was reformed, and bone reknit. Sinew connected again, and muscles were rebuilt. His severed vein was connected and the blood flow stopped. That was all that was important at the moment.

He saw Guren launch himself upwards, evade an attack, and sever the joint of the wing. There was a terrible ripping noise as the skin hidden in the pooling darkness was torn by gravity. But vexingly enough, it did not fall completely and hung, limp and useless at the demon's side. Heedless of his injuries, he ran towards the exposed back of the once-vampire. But the demon turned and faced him, faster than any other could possibly move, and stopping Kimizuki in his tracks.

The pain of his injuries ebbed as Kiseki-Ō healed him, but it did not vanish even when the demon screamed. He could feel the sound waves course through his body, threatening to tear him apart. The sound was unbearable but this scream was different than the one that they heard in the tunnel. This scream was one of frustration, one that reached from the very depths of Hell that this monster had come from.

The sound got louder and louder, shaking his chest. It reached an apex and he clapped his hands over his ears, but the demon had directed the attack on him. He screamed, only adding to his predicament. But then it all suddenly stopped, just as suddenly as it had begun, but only this time, there was no warning.

He could hear ringing in his ears, it gained in intensity and caused him to fall to his knees, his eyes watering as he tried to do anything to stop it. The high pitched noise stayed, however, and even grew to a climax when it receded and stopped.

There was no sound, nothing. He couldn't hear his heavy breathing inhaling, or exhaling, but he could feel it. He couldn't even hear his heart beating. He could see the movement of his friend's feet, could see them yelling at him, but he couldn't hear them.

He knew something was very wrong

 _Well, look here. It seems you've managed to do damage that_ I _can't repair._ Kiseki-Ō's voice reached him in the silence, like a bell ringing clearly to warn of dangers yet to come.

 _What the Hell, Kiseki-Ō? What do you mean by that?_

 _Isn't it obvious? You're never going to hear again. That demon broke your eardrums and did even more damage to your auditory nerves. I can heal the pain that will come with physical damages, but I can't do a single thing for severed nerves._

 _Well, then. Can you at least hear the sounds of the outside world? Maybe if you could, then you could tell me whats-_

 _Nope. That's not going to happen. I can see what you see, and nothing more, the same can be said for hearing, and besides even if I could hear the outside world, why would I help you? You haven't necessarily been the kindest partner to me, and I have helped you when you were wounded. You, my dear, dear partner, will never hear again._

Kimizuki raised his hands quickly to inspect his ears and discovered that his fingers came back, wet with blood. He cursed, but couldn't tell how loud it was, which only gave him the impulse to swear louder, but the demon standing before him was a bigger problem for him than his lost hearing.

In the minuscule amount of time that Kimizuki had turned his attention away from the fight, the blood-sucker had turned its attention to Shinoa, who was holding her own against one of the wings. She dodged and blocked and twisted and turned, never letting it touch her, with every block she was able to minorly nick the wing that attacked her. It was like a dangerous dance, where one wrong step would get you more than a simple twisted ankle or a swollen foot.

He watched as the demon encroached on her space, reducing her maneuverability significantly with every step he took towards her. Kimizuki felt vibrations run through his chest and throat as he emitted something akin to a scream when the demon nicked her shoulder, knocking her off balance, and sending her sprawling.

Before she was struck down by the wing Guren was there, blocking and countering with Mahiru. The room shook once more when he presumed the demon let out another scream, causing the ceiling to lose more and more integrity.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Yoichi ushering Mitsuba and Shinya out, probably to keep them safe if the ceiling were to fall. That was just like him, trying to make sure everyone else was safe before he worried about his own injuries. They made eye contact for a moment, and nodded in mutual understanding.

Kimizuki couldn't hear, but he would be damned before he let the demon take any more from him. Fully turning his attention to the demon, he attacked once more, efficiently dodging the first strike, but unable to counter. He was barely able to hold his own, and this was with the blood-sucker's attention away from him, and evading the broken wing.

That was at least, until he was finally able to land a blow and grab the attention of the demon. Faster than he could track, the demon spun and stabbed with his wing, just in time for Guren to slash downwards and tear the end of his wing off, just as he had the other one.

The room began to shake once more, only this time it was more vehement than the last times that it had happened, large pieces of the ceiling crashed down, causing yet another obstacle for them to work around, and avoid. Any one of those pieces could crush them if it were to fall. Instantly dead. And nothing could bring them back.

The sheer danger of the situation was sinking in. The ceiling was falling down on them, they were fighting a demon that was holding it's own against the three of them, all wielders of Black Demon Series weapons, and Kimizuki's hearing wasn't worth a damn.

But they weren't falling, they even seemed to be excelling, beating at him more than he was beating at them.

The second die was cast, revealing a six.

 _Ching!_ Shikama Dōji clanged against the wall as she rebounded off of Mika's wing. This was the third time that this had happened, and she was with people she looked up to and that looked up to her, and this is how she showed them she could fight? It was a disgrace.

She needed to try harder, to push farther, she needed to show her worth like she never had before, and the way to do that was to go on the offensive.

Slowly and smoothly, she transitioned to a more aggressive tactic, she gave less and less ground and started dodging and countering the attacks. Now she knew that she needed to be even more careful, if she landed a few lacerations, then the attention would immediately be directed at her. She needed to bide her time, watch for null areas of his defense.

 _There!_ She sprung forward, moving faster than she normally would, after Mika slashed downwards, the small of his back was defenseless. The opening was small, but it was there nonetheless, and it was consistent. If she could just get the tip of her ax into that spot, then she-

 _Ching!_ Her thinking was cut off when Guren was suddenly in front of her, Mahiru raised, and Mika was facing her. His black eyes wide and unseeing, with Yuu's limp body in his arms.

She was so close to him that she could hear his rasping breaths. He was breathing hard and heavy, and every breath seemed to be a pain for him. She could see the tips of his fangs peeking out from behind his lips, and the black viscous liquid that streamed from his mouth and eyes, imitating tears and spittle, and leaving angry red marks in its wake.

As she watched, a single black tear fell from the nadir of his chin and onto Yuu's exposed chest. The effect was immediate, the caustic tear ate a hole through the graying flesh. The sight sent shivers down her spine, she knew that she could not be touched by the black liquid.

Guren looked like he was struggling against the weight of the world, but Mika's face betrayed no emotion or exertion, his wing poised elegantly against Mahiru's blade, slightly quivering as it pressed slowly downward. Guren's strength was not one to be taken lightly, but here Mika was, not only on equal ground but actually beating him.

There was a slash as Kimizuki practically flew over Mika's head and removed the tip of the wing troubling Guren. He was able to push him back and catch his breath, but only for an instant when the three of them launched a synchronized attack, Guren and Mitsuba from the front and Kimizuki from the back.

It was like it had been planned and practiced over and over, ingrained in them from the moment they began training. No words or commands were needed, they moved to compliment each other's weaknesses and strengths, never stopping their attacks and flowing with calm determination.

The third die to be cast revealed a six.

Guren knew his endurance was failing. There was no way that he would be able to keep up this pace for long, despite that he wanted to kill the blood-sucker himself, there was no way that he would be able to do it on his own.

Well, other than _that_.

He, Kimizuki, and Shinoa seemed to be holding the attention of the thing, avoiding the attacks of it and inflicting small scratches on it in response. It all seemed to be going perfectly, and that was the perfect time for everything to go wrong.

Kimizuki was taken off guard by a wing, throwing him back and practically embedding him in the concrete wall. As opposed to the last time, he didn't move after the impact.

"Kimizuki!" Shinoa screamed as she parried one of the wings away from her. But in one moment of weakness, one moment of distraction, the blood-sucker redoubled his efforts and attacked her relentlessly. She gave ground quickly, and that was all well and good until she no longer had any farther to move.

Realization dawned in her eyes as the wings were raised in preparation to finish her off. He wasn't going to be able to get there in time.

All Guren could do was watch what he knew as her last moments. He cursed himself, if they had never come on this God forsaken mission, none of this would have happened. Shinya wouldn't have been hurt, Shinoa wouldn't be in this position, and Yuu, Yuu wouldn't be dead. Guren squeezed tears from the corners of his eyes. He _needed_ to get there.

And get there he did. He threw himself in front of Shinoa, raising Mahiru in defense of Shinoa and himself. But, it was futile, because the attack didn't come from above like he anticipated. It came from the front.

The blood-sucker sprayed the black liquid from his mouth right into Guren's open eyes. The effect was immediate and unbearable. The caustic material ate away at any protective layers and dug through his pupils, destroying all sight he ever had. But the pain didn't stop there, he could still feel the acid digging through his eyes. He gripped his eyes tightly, rubbing vigorously, which seemed to just make it worse.

Guren fell and screamed himself half to death. His sinuses all emptied, making it harder to breathe, he was choking on his own saliva. He began to scratch and claw at his eyes, anything to make it stop, anything to reduce the pain, even if he had to claw out his own eyes. What was left of his eyes were watering and making streaks of tears that burned his cheeks, but he couldn't stop anything.

 _Guren_

Everything faded, the pain of his eyes, and the sounds of battle. He was able to breathe again. But then he felt the temptation.

 _Guren. It hurts me to see you in pain. If you just let me take over for a little bit, then I can make the pain all go away. All you need to do is surrender your entire being to me._

No. He couldn't let that happen, under no circumstances could he do that. It would be Hell on Earth if he let Mahiru take hold of him. But then the pain would fade. Everything would be okay. He could create his own private universe where Shinya and he could live together in peace.

But then, it wouldn't be real. Nothing would be real, and he would know that nothing was real. Everything that he ever said would be a creation that Guren put in his mouth to hear him say.

But in that one moment of weakness, when he thought that he would be happy in an artificial universe, Mahiru struck at his walls. And his defenses crumbled.

 _I thank you for your submission, my dear, dear Guren. I will crush your adversary more thoroughly than you and your puny friends could do in a thousand lifetimes. So just sit back and enjoy the ride._

For better or worse, Mahiru was in control. The fourth die was cocked, but recast to be a six.

Shinya ran down the hall, Yoichi and Mitsuba trailing behind. It was Yoichi's idea, but he had to make sure it was carried out. He concentrated, calling out to Byakkomaru, searching for his presence. If he was going to help Guren and the rest, then he _needed_ to find him. And Yoichi needed to find Gekkōin to save them.

Everything needed to go as planned for this to work. They needed to find Byakkomaru, Gekkōin, and Tenjiryū. And everything needed to _work_. That was the key part of the plan, everything actually had to happen.

And if everything didn't happen, then the word would completely go straight to Hell. No exceptions. No 'get out of jail free' cards. If that _thing_ got out there, then the world would end.

So, it wasn't all that much pressure on his shoulders as he rushed through the unfamiliar hallways listening for the answering call of Byakkomaru desperately.

"Gekkōin!" Yoichi screamed in relief and excitement, "I heard him, he's this way." He gesticulated wildly and turned a hard left corner shouting behind his back for them to follow.

As they grew closer and closer, Shinya heard Byakkomaru's voice in his head once more, it was faint, but it was there nonetheless. _Hey, absolutely love to know that you care_ so _much about me. I am overjoyed to know that you're coming to my rescue. Or are you only doing it to come to that tramp's aid?_

 _What tramp could you mean by any chance, you were always my favorite partner, Byakkomaru. I am wounded that you would ever think I care so little about you to not come help you. Absolutely offended._

Byakkomaru scoffed in Shinya's mind, which was quite an odd experience when it got right down to it. But the rise in volume was significant, almost exponential from when they had first started their banter. _Yeah, do you know how awkward it is when you two are together? I mean. It would be bad enough if I was_ just _your roommate. But nooo. I'm actually_ inside your head. _I'm aware of everything that goes through your head and everything you feel. But, no, I see, I'm still your favorite partner._

Shinya felt a blush slowly color his cheeks. He supposed it was possible and even plausible that Byakkomaru was aware of his… sessions with Guren. But he never dreamed in his entire life that Byakkomaru was actually _listening_ and _aware_. But then he got a horrible thought. What was it like for _Mahiru?_

But, his own embarrassment aside they finally rounded a corner and their demons came into sight. They had been flung haphazardly into a pile in a corner with no regard for any of them. It almost hurt him to see his precious rifle flung on top of Gekkōin, and Tenjiryū flung on top of it. Almost, he still remembered his conversation from earlier about Byakkomaru's knowledge of his exploits with Guren.

Mitsuba rushed to heft Tenjiryū, even as Shinya wondered at the effortlessness of the small girl as she wielded and dangerously swung the gigantic ax around her body. Her gaunt face seemed to regain a little composure as she was reunited with her demon, even if her scratches and scrapes were blindingly obvious on her skin.

Shinya was next, as he carefully pulled Byakkomaru from the ground, there was a slight blemish on the black exterior, but other than that, he was as good as new.

Finally, Yoichi carefully lifted Gekkōin from the ground. He looked to be the weakest of them all, with his fragile appearing weapon, but for all the weight that was atop it, it showed no signs of any blemishes whatsoever.

After a few moments of a joyous reunion, they were all brought back to the present by a monstrous roar that echoed through the hallways and shook their bones. _What even is that?_ Byakkomaru asked through Shinya's conscience.

 _No clue, it's something we need to kill though. All I know is that it was a vampire that knew Yuu and when he died, the vampire just lost it. Went insane, screaming his heart out or whatever. Now it's attacking us, and we need to kill it to save the rest of the team._

 _Wait. That kid Yuu's dead? Man, I really liked the kid. He was one of the few people that could actually handle Asuramaru. Speaking of Asuramaru, you should take him back to headquarters, he's not going to let anyone touch him after Yuu. He may not have acted like it, but he really liked the guy._

Shinya turned around at the mention of Asuramaru and found him. He was cast aside in the corner, apart from the others. His blade was halfway out of the sheath, and a dull gray. Whenever Yuu had used him, it shined so brightly that you might cut yourself simply by looking at it. Now the blade looked unpolished, scratched, and even cracked, like a blade that hadn't been cared for in a decade.

Taking pity on the forgotten blade, he removed his jacket and carefully wrapped Asuramaru in it, being cautious to not touch him at all, because that may be one of the largest mistakes of his life.

If he concentrated hard enough, he thought he could pick up on waves of anguish emanating from the sword and it made his heart go out to the demon. It was a constant reminder that Yuu was gone, and he could do nothing.

 _Look at me. Feeling compassion for a demon. What has this world come to?_

 _We are quite a compassion inducing species if you ask me. Not as squishy as humans, but not as hard as the vampires. A happy medium. And besides, Asuramaru's been through a lot. He heard Yuu's death song, and couldn't do anything to stop it, or even get_ close _._

 _Death Song?_

 _Yeah, it's like_ a last _token to the world. Everyone has one, but no one can hear it unless they have been deeply intertwined in the destiny of the one who died. Having a mental connection where we are literally in the head of someone. They're supposed to be incredibly beautiful but incredibly dangerous, like a siren's call. Asuramaru was trapped here, where he could just barely hear the song, but he couldn't get close enough to truly experience it. It's a song of sorrow but also thanks, a song of forgiveness, and of regret. All of the person's memories, failures, and successes all released in a mere ten seconds. They lay everything to rest in those ten seconds. They forgive traitors, they love lost lovers, they accept their failures, and everything they've been running from catches up to them._

Shinya wasn't sure what to say after that. It sounded like a terrible thing, but such a wonderful thing at the same time. He was curious as to what his would be like. Would people weep at his death? Would Guren hear his song? Would he hear Guren's? This battle could decide either one of the questions or maybe even both.

They rounded the last corner and saw the monstrosity once more. It looked like they had done a number on the wings, but the body was still a horrible broken husk of what it once was. The same as when it first entered the room carrying the lifeless body of Yuu.

He held up his hand to the others to portray silence, then motioned for Yoichi to get down and take aim. Mitsuba was to wait for the signal and then attack while the enemy was still off balance.

As he aimed Byakkomaru, he could see Kimizuki, Shinoa, and especially Guren fight and dodge the behemoth that assailed them. Shinoa seemed to be fighting fine, albeit a little slower than usual. But there was something off about Kimizuki and Guren's movements. Kimizuki wasn't using these surroundings to his advantage as much, he should have been able to dodge some of the attacks that were being thrown at him. And Guren's movements seemed almost mechanical. He wasn't moving as he usually would and was concentrating hard on auditory indicators, not paying heed to any visual tricks, could the monster make some people hallucinate as well?

He shook these thoughts from his head as he readied Byakkomaru, like always steady as a rock. He could thread a needle from half a mile away if he was given enough preparation time and enough indicators. This was a controlled environment where the target was no more than fifty meters away. There was no way that he would miss.

Once he had the monster fully and completely in his sights he glanced at Yoichi, waiting for the sign that he too was ready to fire. His face was a mask of concentration as he aimed at the behemoth, no one wanted to hurt their own. Finally, Yoichi gave the microscopic nod that meant he was ready to fire at Shinya's say so.

Shinya turned his attention back to the monster and recalibrated ever so slightly. He then swallowed his reluctance that seemed to diminish every time he took a shot. And pulled the trigger, losing a white tiger from the barrel.

The fifth die was cast and landed a six.

Mitsuba heard the _twang_ of Gekkōin and the muffled roar of Byakkomaru and knew that it was her turn to run down into the fray. The world seemed to move in slow motion as both attacks screamed across the sky towards Mika. She saw Shinoa turn and stare at them, Kimizuki saw them out of the corner of his eye and moved away, not wanting to take any chances. And Guren seemed to be standing stock still, his eyes still closed.

As the attacks reached about halfway, she sprung from her spot, knees bending to absorb the fall, and then flung herself at Mika as fast as her legs could carry her. Her breath came in even inhalations, practiced over miles every day, and her legs made quick dull thumps that easily outpaced her breathing.

Before she knew it, Byakkomaru and Gekkōin had struck their target, one on each wing propelling Mika backward with the force. Microseconds later, there came the deafening _boom_ of an impact that shook the ground beneath Mitsuba and almost threw her off balance. Then the piercing scream came.

She had never heard such a loud sound in her entire life, the scream echoed throughout the room, and rebounded over and over in her head. She tried to do her best to avoid the sound, but the closer she came to Mika, the louder it got.

Right when she thought that she would have to stop and cover her ears, it stopped. Her ears began to ring, but she could still hear the thumping of her feet on the floor, and the slight metallic clinking when she hefted Tenjiryū. Everything else was deathly silent, no one moved, no one spoke, except for her.

She could count the number of strides that it would take her to reach Mika. Fifteen, and she could see the gray pallor of Yuu's skin. Ten, and she could see the inky black splatters on the impeccable uniform of the monster. Five and she could hear the rasping breaths of Mika. Three and she could smell the fresh blood that had been spilled. Two and she lifted Tenjiryū above her head. One and she swung down, delivering a bone-shattering blow to the crown of Mika's head. The impact carried all the force of her dash and the strength of her arm, with the added fury over Yuu.

There Mika stood, Yuu cradled lovingly in his arms, and Tenjiryū lodged-

But Tenjiryū wasn't lodged in his head as she had expected. The giant ax had been deflected by nothing. It was flung in the corner, slipped out of Mitsuba's hands after the impact. So she stood there, the anticipation of striking the killing blow leaving her completely unprepared if it were not to work.

And it didn't work, that was when he struck.

It took awhile for Mitsuba to register what had happened. Mika's arm quickly and almost painlessly piercing its way through her heart. He had half dropped Yuu's body to the ground but held tight to the other half as if his life depended on it. She saw Shinoa's eyes widen suddenly in shock and fear. Heard a distant scream of anguish, and fury spark in Kimizuki's eyes. But none of that mattered now.

Her legs had gone limp, and she practically hung to the arm protruding from her. She supposed she should have been in pain, but she didn't feel anything. She just felt... _cold_. She couldn't breathe, nothing was working the way it should. She couldn't stand, she couldn't breathe, she felt cold. And she was tired, so very very tired.

Mika ripped his bloody hand from her chest and proceeded to lift Yuu again and turn away from her falling body. Using his wings to block attacks from Guren and Kimizuki, and even an arrow or two from Yoichi. All the while, Shinoa watched, frozen with fear and panic, Shikama Dōji hung limply from her hands.

It was odd, her body seemed to be falling in slow motion. Her brain chose now to decide to shut off, in the worst time of her life. She heard a dull thud as her knees hit the ground, no pain whatsoever. Just sound. That was all that mattered to her now. Sound.

If she concentrated she could hear the _lub-dub_ of her heart.

 _Lub_

Her body crashed to the floor.

 _Dub_

The crashes of impact and battle roared above her, but it didn't matter.

 _Lub_

Someone turned her over. Someone predominantly black. A black silhouette against a bright white sky. Her eyes refused to focus not even to filter out the white so she could determine other colors.

 _Dub_

She let out a tiny cough, splattering a bit of warm liquid down her chin. Something long and soft tickled her face. She tried to smile, what else would the silhouette want? Cold fingers brushed her bangs back from her face. Her eyes still wouldn't focus.

 _Lub_

The silhouette disappeared, and a pressure began under her arms and she had the slight sensation of being dragged across the floor.

 _Dub_

This was going on an awful long time. Mika had obviously missed her heart, there was no other explanation for her living this long. Finally, the silhouette reappeared, and this time, Mitsuba was able to make out traces of purple hair. Of course it was Shinoa, who else would tolerate her enough to take her out of the thick of the fighting? She tried to smile again, but this time, it probably came out as more of a grimace.

 _Lub_

Shinoa seemed to be talking, but she couldn't hear individual words. All that mattered was the ups and downs of her voice. The highs and lows of her vocal patterns. She couldn't feel anymore, but that was fine because she knew Shinoa was holding her.

She saw Shinoa lean down and place her lips on her own. Her lungs were filling with air, and then Shinoa was rhythmically pressing on her chest, making her lungs slowly deflate. And the process was repeated, it was funny. She didn't remember the last time she heard her heart beat.

She couldn't smell anymore, but that was fine. All she could smell was blood and besides, she knew what Shinoa smelled of. As long as she could hear her, she was fine.

Glittering drops fell from Shinoa's face and landed on her own. Was Shinoa _crying_? Shinoa had never cried before, at least not in her presence. What made her do so now?

She couldn't taste anymore, but that was fine. Losing the ability to taste anything was a small price to pay to continue to hear Shinoa.

Shinoa had stopped breathing into her and instead gripped her as tightly as she could to her body. Sobs wracked her body but Mitsuba didn't care, she was with Shinoa and that was all that mattered.

But then her hearing disappeared. There was nothing just an acute silence that seemed to cut at her in every way possible. But she forced herself to calm down. As long as she could see-

But then everything became increasingly clear. She couldn't do anything but watch. She begged her heart to beat again. She commanded her lungs to inflate without assistance from Shinoa. She urged her body to move. But it was ultimately useless. She was dying and there was nothing she could do about it.

She was trapped in her own body, watching on a screen what her mutilated body was seeing and screaming when Shinoa gingerly reached down and shut off even that screen by closing her eyes, completing her prison. Until even she began to disappear, nothing left. In the last moment that she was conscious, she let out all of her anger and fury. Her sadness and regret. She let everything out into the world because she would be damned if she didn't leave one last mark on the world.

The last die was cast and flew askew.


	12. Chapter 12

Mahiru smiled.

Finally, she had obtained control of this cursed vessel. She found Guren's eyes to no longer work, but she was able to tell a lot about the situation from auditory signals, she had grown used to it when she was locked inside her lover's body. Testing different ways that she could do things, and how they could be done.

She was the perfect abomination. All of the power gained when she became a vampire, and all of the power she gained when she became a demon all bundled up inside her. She had complete control over everything that she did. She no longer had to watch and advise and tempt from the sidelines.

She was free.

Now Guren was the one locked away. And that was how it would remain, she would make him feel the pain of not being able to do anything, just like she had been condemned to do when he first killed her.

There was a slight whooshing sound and she ducked as one of the Seraph's wings soared over her head and she laughed. Nothing could stop her now.

She heard the return of one of the wings, she jumped and swung down with the sword that had once held her captive. The blade was still sharp and cut the wing like a hot knife through butter, she felt almost no resistance whatsoever to her strike and was concerned that she might not have landed a blow until she heard the scream. A scream that she used to scream when she was first imprisoned, disbelief, anger, and inferiority. Now, everything was inferior to her, all she had to do was wait.

Nothing could stop her now. Then all of a sudden there were two deafening booms and nothing except for the pitter-patter of feet on stone. Cue another scream, a beautiful scream that reminded her of the old days when everything was so so horrible. She loved this. There was no pain that she hadn't felt already, she was waiting for something to challenge her authority and this right here was it. And she would show the damn Seraph that she would not be put down so easily.

She swung with everything she had, not releasing any of her powers, she wouldn't waste it on something like this. Someone joined her, male by the sound of his breathing and grunts when he swung whatever he had at the Seraph. Another person screamed from high above, maybe one of the snipers, who knew? Then she heard a dull thud and rustle, a body falling to the ground.

A small smile played on her lips. Who was dead now? Would this increase her glory? Was it painful? Who knew, but once she knew this thing had taken a life, she redoubled her efforts. This was so much fun.

She was finally free.

She was ruined.

Everything that she had wanted was ripped away from her in an instant.

There would be no more shower talks, no more screaming, no more good-natured arguments. No more blonde hair to tease her, or to be teased.

Mitsuba was gone. Just like Mahiru. Just like Yuu. She had to deal with this pain again. Three friends. Three members of her family were just gone. Just when she forgot how fragile a human life could be, she was always reminded in a cruel, cruel manner.

She looked down at Mitsuba one last time, her violet eyes were dull and unseeing, she had lost the light that was always there. Slowly, she reached down and closed her eyelids. Her soul erupted in pain. Everything that Mitsuba ever was was gone. She would never laugh again, she would never cry again, she would never open her eyes again.

She would never hug Shinoa, they would never cuddle on rainy days, and they would never laugh naked in the shower again. Everything that she could have been was gone. And that made her furious.

She was filled with fury and couldn't handle the facts. She surrendered herself to her fury and watched as the world collapsed around her.

Something else was driving her soul, she had no control over herself when she moved faster than she ever thought she could and drove Shikama Dōji into Mika's distracted body. She had no control over herself when she ripped Shikama Dōjiout and tore through the soft flesh of the one-time vampire. She had no control over her body when she dodged the wings of Mika and tore one from his body, a sickening wet pop echoing through the chamber.

Shinoa would have been sickened as the bone was wrenched and dislocated out of his back, monster or not, but not today. She heard mad laughter coming from someone who sounded an awful lot like Guren, and the sound of someone, probably Yoichi, becoming sick in the corner or right where he stood. But whatever was causing her body to move was not bothered by the emergence of the glistening black bone, and pressed the attack further through Mika's screams.

But fierce determination was caught off guard as the other wing rounded and sent her sprawling into the wall, and everything left her. She was back to the husk and desperation of her prior state. Whatever had possessed her for those seven seconds or so was gone. She couldn't move her body again, but for a different reason, it hurt to breathe, but she could tell that none of her wounds were fatal by a routine check of her body.

"Who would d-dare t-touch _me_ " A rasping voice rang out, " _Me_ a Seraph? Who has th-the audacity to t-touch a Seraph?" The voice was getting closer and closer to Shinoa but all she wanted to do was sleep, whatever had possessed her had taken all of the energy out of her. "Wh-which one of you s-s-sinners t-touched _me_? Was it y-you?" The Seraph asked as it reached Shinoa, "Was it you that d-defiled this body?"

Shinoa couldn't do anything but raise her head to stare defiantly into the black eyes. She made her best attempt at spitting which only succeeded in only dribbling her chin in saliva. "You-you're the one who took her from me. You took her from me." She said as defiantly as she could but was interrupted again as the projectiles of Byakkomaru and Gekkōin slammed into his body.

She smiled, looks like she was going to keep on fighting. She glanced back at Mitsuba, _Looks like I'm gonna have to fight for the two of us from now on, right, Mitsu-chan?_

As soon as Yoichi had heard the pop and wet wrenching of a bone being removed from the body, he felt the bile pushing its way up his throat. Before he could reach a corner, his vomit was in his gloved hand and partially down the front of his uniform, but there was still more coming. Finally, his stomach emptied, but still heaving, he was able to remove his jacket and gloves, they weren't going to do him much good as it was now.

He saw Shinya's gesture to take aim and spotted Mika's half-winged body hovering over Shinoa's prone form. Pushing down another wave of disgust from the gaping black wound, he slowly took aim. His wrist still throbbed from when he had dislocated it, but somehow, somewhere, it had relocated itself. When he got time, he would have to thank Gekkōin. But he finally pulled the string back to its capacity and glanced over at Shinya, nodding his signal that he was ready.

He released and felt the familiar burst of power flow through him as he released Gekkōin's power onto an enemy, his wrist hurting less and less. The arrow struck home, just where he had aimed, and knocked Mika down.

But his victory was short-lived, as he saw that he was just in time to save Shinoa, but even if he had saved her from the immediate danger, there was still the fact that it didn't look like she was going to get up in while.

With Mika down, Kimizuki exploited his chance and thrust Kiseki-Ō at Mika's back, earning yet another scream from him. However, it only pierced his skin, it wasn't enough to kill, it was barely enough to slow him down. Yoichi ran to another alcove, this one closer to the action and closer to Kimizuki in case anything were to happen. There was plenty of debris to hide behind if things got hairy, and he was in no danger at the moment.

Guren, also wielding his sword stepped forward, swinging wildly, but purposefully, not a stroke was useless and not placed there for a reason. One of the more deadly attacks and one of the more difficult ones as well. Slowly, but surely, they were all pushing Mika back into the corner, still holding tight to Yuu, but not dropping him. Holding him close to him, almost caringly and lovingly protecting him from harm.

Kimizuki swung Kiseki-Ō horizontally, making as if to remove his head from his body, but at the last second, Mika sprung into the air, staying there for a while, almost seeming to hover, but soon he was able to somehow move in the air and landed fifteen strides from where Yoichi hid, crouched into the ground, his heart beating a mile a minute.

Yoichi made sure not to breathe erratically, something which was becoming more and more difficult with each passing moment, and slowly, silently, he drew Gekkōin back.

But as he shifted his footing to provide for a better shot at him, Yoichi heard his foot scuff the floor, a small sound, but a sound nonetheless. He hoped and prayed that Mika hadn't heard it and didn't move at all for three seconds, a lifetime, enough time for him to be killed with seconds to spare, but nothing came.

Slowly, he lifted his head above his small boulder of safety and watched for any inclination that death was coming for him. But there was none.

In fact, Mika was even facing _away_ from him, his back held wide open for any of Yoichi's attacks. He pulled Gekkōin's string back gently, quietly, and took aim at the one place that was sure to kill just about anything, this monster would be no different.

He closed his eyes, and took a calming breath in through his nose, and exhaled quietly through his mouth. He repeated the process three times before his hands stopped shaking and he finally opened his eyes.

It was almost as if nothing had changed, Kimizuki was almost to Mika, and Guren slightly ahead of him, it wouldn't make any difference, Yoichi would make them proud and ensure that no one else would die here today.

He took another second to aim and released the arrow, the string snapping from his fingertips. He watched it fly, straight and true and felt pride and confidence rising within him. He was going to do it. He was going to kill Mika.

And there was his problem, he put a name to the monster and felt his confidence waver and crumble, he stumbled back, stepping on a small piece of debris the wrong way. His ankle twisted out from under him, and he fell.

He let out a short moan of pain, he had fallen on several rocks that poked into his back and legs. He instantly tried to muffle the sound, but it was too late. Mika had heard it and moved slightly, forcing Gekkōin's arrow to land askew, grazing Mika's side and creating a large dent in the far wall.

But now, Mika had seen him.

He scrambled away, clattering through stones, causing them to fall and chip and crack. Multiple times, his hands caught on jagged edges, cutting into his hands and his shirt was now a tattered ruin, no use anymore. His ankle wouldn't work, he couldn't use it, but all that he cared about at the moment was getting away from the creature that was slowly advancing on him.

Mika was gaining on him, Yoichi almost cursed, why was walking so much faster than scrambling? Why was it so much more sinister than running? Why did it have to be him?

All of these questions flashed through his head at once, but he knew that asking those questions was going to do nothing for him. He had accepted it, he was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.

His hands, slippery and aching found no purchase on the floor, and his back thudded to the ground, a single small rock poking into his shoulder, making him cry out. A shadow fell over him, sinister, and complete.

The black wing was raised above him, and Yoichi closed his eyes. He didn't want to see his death, he wanted to be with Tomoe again. They would pick flowers in a field again, and they would be happy.

He always wanted to know what it was like to die. He often wondered what was beyond this life, was it a void? Was it rebirth? Was there a heaven? He supposed now he was going to find out.

His eyes closed, he couldn't see the final stroke fall, but he could hear the soft whoosh as it tore through the air. He heard the sound of it cutting through fabric and that horrible sound of squelching flesh. But what he didn't feel was pain, he must have been numb to it, his body going into shock. That was what they always said in stories, right? They were numb to the feeling of pain because they had been pushed over their limit.

But then he could hear a thick liquid splashing to the ground, that wasn't right, he was on the ground, it would be a small drip. And then he heard a weak cough and Yoichi opened his eyes and saw a tall figure standing over him, holding two blades connected by a short chain.

Horror filled Yoichi as he watched Kimizuki fall to the floor, a dark red stain quickly spreading from his shoulder to his hip.

As quickly and decisively as he could, he shot Mika, the string thrumming from his fingers satisfyingly as the arrow took him in the chest, causing him to stumble back and into the barrage that Guren and Shinya were creating. He had time. Kimizuki needed it.

He had all the time in the world.


	13. Chapter 13

He wasn't going to make it. He watched as the demon turned slowly to face Yoichi after evading Gekkōin's arrow. He watched as Yoichi's eyes grew wide as dinner plates with terror. He watched as Yoichi stumbled back and fell as his ankle gave out. He watched helplessly as Yoichi scrambled back on his hands away from the demon.

With each action, he thudded closer and closer, feet soundless against the floor, stumbling over debris, but never losing his footing. It was only enough to make him slow down, he had to get there in time.

Eight paces away and the demon rose its wing, high above his head. Five and Yoichi closed his eyes. Three and Yoichi inhaled, holding his breath, anticipating what was to come. One, and the wing began its slow descent, but he was there.

Kiseki-Ō was raised too late, and his arms fell useless to his sides as he stood there, a large and very serious wound had appeared stretching from shoulder to hip. He coughed and felt a small dribble of blood drip from his mouth. His body gave up on trying to stand and he fell onto his back, the pain finally hitting him.

It was hot, a burning, searing pain. His body instantly broke out in a sheen of sweat as a response to the new sensation. He saw a flash of green light shoot across his field of vision and knew that it was one of Gekkōin's arrows.

Yoichi's silhouette came across his vision, and he could feel his jacket being pulled off of him, followed by his shirt. His head was lifted up slightly, quickly and efficiently and his bundled jacked placed below it. His breath was coming in quick, short breaths now.

He coughed again, blood splattering down his chin, jerking his head forward. He could feel the life oozing out of him, what was searing hot only a few moments ago was now chillingly cold and his body was clammy with sweat. There was a pressure on his chest, where the life was seeping out of him, some futile attempt to stop it he suspected.

Then Yoichi appeared above him, not just his silhouette, but actual facial features, his eyes wide with tears. Kimizuki could feel the patter of them falling on his cheek. But Kimizuki would make sure he didn't cry anymore.

Even though it pained him and Yoichi could undoubtedly see it on his face, he reached up his arm to dry his tears. He had never felt Yoichi's face before and was surprised to find it soft. With this action, however, Yoichi's eyes got even wider and tears sprung from his eyes even more quickly.

He was saying something now, but Kimizuki couldn't hear it, he only watched the melodic movement of his lips and concentrated on deciphering the words that they formed. He could see his name along with words such as "Please", "Stay with me", and "Stay awake".

The discovery brought a smile to his lips and he swallowed thickly, there was no way that he was going to live through this, not even if Kiseki-Ō wanted to throw any of his power into the mix, which seemed doubtful, even with his life on the line. His hand was still on Yoichi's face, but with his blood rapidly exiting his body, it started to fall, before it fell to his side again, Yoichi caught it and enveloped it in both his hands.

His hands were very warm, they were soft but still calloused in all of the places where you would expect an archer to have them. Guren had said one time that you could tell the map of a person's life from his hands, but he found that to be inaccurate in this situation. Yoichi's hands were soft, like someone who had never worked hard in his life, but that wasn't true, he had worked just as hard as everyone else, harder even. And everyone loved him for it.

But his hands were also slick with blood, both of theirs combined he suspected, cuts from the rocks still flowing albeit less rapidly than the giant tear in Kimizuki's chest. Kimizuki didn't care, he never wanted to die, but he supposed if it were to happen and he could choose it, he would choose a death not unlike this one, with Yoichi by his side and not another care in the world.

He smiled one more time and Yoichi laid his head down on his chest, it was painful, but if this was going to be his last moment with Yoichi, he didn't care. Yoichi was saying something, he could feel the vibrations in his chest and he could feel the shudders of him crying.

Slowly, Kimizuki prodded him up and made him look at him, Kimizuki wanted the last thing he saw to be the brunet's face. Then he realized it was his last chance to say something he had always wanted to say.

He beckoned Yoichi down and as Yoichi came further down, Kimizuki used his last reserves of strength to push himself up and gingerly kissed his lips, it was nothing special, but it was the last thing he could offer and it was his most prized possession. He had given his life for him, and he wanted Yoichi to know that it wasn't a gift given freely.

He hoped his vocal chords worked the same as he couldn't hear himself, but he spoke his final words to the crying brunet above his face, looking torn between utter anguish and complete confusion. After his words had been spoken, he gave the last of his life in one last gift. He made sure he was smiling as the world dissolved around him.

"Keep smiling, I love you."

Yoichi ran to Kimizuki's fallen body. Thoughts like _This can't be happening_ and _What was he thinking?_ shot through his mind. _I was ready to die. I had accepted the fact that I was going to die. Why did he have to get in the way?_

For the first moments he was angry, angry at his sudden turn of fate. Angry at Kimizuki for getting in the way. Angry at Mika for trying to kill them all. Angry at Yuu for dying and leaving him here in this mess. But mostly angry at himself for giving up so easily, if he had fought just a little bit longer than maybe he wouldn't have put Kimizuki in this position. Maybe if he had just come out from under the bed he would have gotten killed and none of this would have happened and Kimizuki would still be okay.

But all of his anger fell away at the sight of the diagonal wound across his chest. There was a dark stain that was spreading from the cut fabric on his jacket. Yoichi instantly knew it was bad. Not just bad, lethal, fatal, mortal, and deadly all of those words described it, but he didn't want to believe any of them. There was a slim to none chance that he would live through the hour, and living through the minute wasn't looking much better.

Quickly, Yoichi stripped Kimizuki to the waist, bundling his jacket beneath his head gently, and using the shirt to stop the bleeding. As soon as the white material touched the open wound, red sprung up, painting the shirt permanently. He pressed the shirt and willed the blood to stop seeping from the cut.

He could hear himself saying things, but wasn't conscious of saying them, they were just words that were falling out. "Kimizuki, don't die on me, please. Please don't die. You need to stay with me right now, okay? Just stay awake and everything will be alright, you just need to stay awake. Please, Kimizuki."

Three seconds passed and the shirt just became red beneath his fingers. It was then that he truly realized that nothing could be done. It was also this moment that he realized he was crying, he looked at Kimizuki through blurred vision and a spasm of pain flashed across his face and he raised one of his hands to wipe the tears from Yoichi's eyes. It seemed Kimizuki had come to the same conclusion.

Yoichi needed to stop crying, for Kimizuki's sake, it wouldn't do for his last moments to be comforting a crying teen. But his tears wouldn't stop coming, and slowly, Kimizuki's hand began to fall, but before it could hit the ground, Yoichi caught it in both of his.

Sometimes he was amazed at how much bigger Kimizuki's hand was, it was much more structured and muscled than both of his. His fingers and the bottom of his palm were calloused and hard from where he held Kiseki-Ō. Slowly, he gently laid his head down on Kimizuki's chest and cried. He didn't care who saw.

Yoichi could hear Kimizuki's strong heartbeat getting fainter and fainter, and coming slower and slower. His time was running out. He felt Kimizuki's gentle urging and raised his head slowly, looking at the pink eyes that he had looked up to for his time in the Shinoa Squad.

Yoichi's face wasn't that far away from Kimizuki's, he wanted to be close enough to hear anything that he said. He was completely unprepared when Kimizuki raised his head up and placed his lips on Yoichi's. It was a completely new concept to him, and he wasted the second that their lips were together being confounded as to why that he didn't react. And by then it was too late, and Kimizuki fell away, smiling one last time, just for Yoichi.

With the smile still on his face, he breathed his last breath and said the words that would be etched on Yoichi's heart for the rest of his life.

"Keep smiling, I love you."


	14. Chapter 14

Mika's entire body was in pain. An excruciating pain that can't be called or defined by mere words alone. It was pure agony like he was trapped between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

There was no sense of time, there was no sense of direction or orientation. It was questionable to whether or not he even _was_.

But the feeling of something missing was proof that he was alive enough, or maybe he was in Hell. It wouldn't surprise him, after everything he'd done to deserve it.

As opposed to the last time he was in a position like this, the world was pure white, a blank slate. Everywhere he looked was a pure white canvas, unmolested by the trials of life or the pain that would await anything.

Echoing laughter broke out around him, a child's laugh, not unlike that of the canvas, a laugh full of new life that didn't know what the world was going to come to, a child bred from naievity.

Searching for the source, Mika flung his senses outward, looking, looking, looking. Nothing. As soon as he let his guard down, a spatter of black appeared on the otherwise perfect white. Then voices, voices he hadn't heard in a long time screamed around him.

"Useless! Pathetic! Abomination! You don't deserve to live! You owe our lives to us, so when we tell you to stop crying and suck it up, you damn well do what you're told!" Breathing seemed unnecessary in this Hell, but if it was possible, Mika's breath would have caught in his throat. They were _dead_. The sound of a hand hitting soft flesh rang in his ears, followed by a child's gasp of pain.

A splatter of crimson, betrayal. He had placed his trust in his parents, and they had treated him like that. He could practically feel the sharp sting of a slap on his cheek, right where his parents would strike, sometimes he cut his lip, sometimes he didn't. Sometimes he cried, sometimes he didn't. But no matter what he did, he could never appease them, they were always mad at him.

The revving of a car engine played in his ears. If his eyes could widen then they would, and in his mind's eye, he could see that night, the night everything changed. He could see his father in the front seat, driving, and his mother sitting beside him. He could hear himself sniffle and rub his nose. He remembered it as vividly as the day it happened, he had revisited this memory several times over, trying to figure out what he had done wrong, and still to this day, he couldn't figure it out. Maybe it was a collection, and they had just had enough. Maybe he was just inherently bad.

He saw through younger eyes as he moved to grab a tissue, his young hands reaching for the box by his mother. As his hands reached out beyond his mother, she slapped them away, a fire in her eyes that he had never seen before. It was more than her usual anger at any of his actions, but he must not have seen anything different at the time because it only stopped him for a moment.

She slapped his hand away and screamed words that he would remember because they changed his life. "What do you think you're entitled to? Do you think that just because I gave birth to you that you are entitled to happiness? Do you think that I love you? You were a mistake! You were never meant to be! You're just a waste of time and money! You. You are a horrible _horrible_ creation! Now just _get lost and die_."

Her last words were emphasized by splattering of neon green paint on the canvas. Abandonment was such a prominent feeling that always seemed to advertise itself. _Hey, look at me, I don't have a family!_

He heard the small _click!_ of his seat belt being undone, like his life being so simply ticked away. It was almost comedic how something that could mean the difference between life and death would be so easily undone. The car door was flung open, and furious hands were on his shoulders and he was shoved out of the moving car.

He tumbled onto the asphalt, rolling and scratching up his skin, tattering his clothes. There was a ditch that he fell into, rolling to a stop there. And it was there he cried, his tears emphasized by blue drops falling onto the canvas in front of him. He was too wounded and tired to move, and so he laid there on the ground for what felt like ages, the sun rose and he didn't care, the sun started to fall, and a person approached him.

A new color painted the canvas, now nowhere near the white that it once was. A soft yellow was sprayed across, hope was like that, thin in some places, but always managing to show itself.

He remembered the officer's kind voice asking what was wrong, and then being ushered into a car. Maybe he should have resisted, but he didn't respond to anything at the time, nothing meant anything. He remembered the shiny hospital that he was taken to, and the comfy bed that they laid him on. There was a nurse who was very nice to him, giving him sweets, and easing his pain.

Then he was taken to the Hyakuya orphanage, which was where he met his real family, a rosy pink color. Time seemed to flow and pain seemed to ebb as he relived old memories of the orphanage and the children there, caught in happy times. Until Christmas day struck.

The beginnings of a dark grey stain appeared on the canvas, uncertainty. His parental figures had all managed to leave him. And given him and Yuu their roles.

But he was still happy. In the vampire city, he still had the children that had become his family. He learned that he loved to read and that it was exciting planning ways to escape with Yuu.

The colors somehow seemed chaotic, but they all morphed together to form a breathtaking picture. Until the large splatter of black struck the canvas. It was like a bucket had been dropped, completely coloring the pink and yellow, and marring the many other colors. Loss, like a black void that ate everything away, leaving only itself. An empty feeling.

He saw the night. The night everything had gone wrong. He saw flashes of everything that had happened. Akane's pleading features, Ferid's cruel smile as he struck his arm through Mika, Yuu's desperation as Mika pushed him away, urging him to run.

The entire canvas soon became black, covering up everything else. The silence became absolute, nothing could be heard, not a breath, not a heartbeat.

Until he was stabbed. He saw the perfect green eyes that had been hard with anger, and instantly widened in horror and recognition. The colors rained down once more. The feelings of sadness and hope and family springing forth once more. The colors painted a mural of his entire life, from the beginning to the end. And they showed a picture, of what his life was for.

The beauty was breathtaking, and heart-wrenching. It was Yuu and Mika as children in the vampire city. Almost as if a snapshot had been taken of his life, Yuu wearing a slightly irritated face as Mika slung himself over his shoulders, laughing away. The background was black, but everything else was as cheerful as could be. They were together and that was all that had mattered back then.

And his world was perfect, but he knew he couldn't stay. He knew that Yuu had left the world he was struggling to return to, but he knew that Yuu would want nothing else from him, he would want him to save his friends, even if they were humans that were using him. And he would carry out Yuu's wish if it was the last thing he would ever be able to do, even if it went against everything he had ever stood for.

He fought against everything that held him in his Hell. He fought the memory of his parents, the memory of the orphan children, he fought Ferid's mocking smile, and finally, he fought Yuu. This wasn't necessarily a fight, more of a right of passage. Yuu _let_ him through, Yuu accepted him for the monster he was and still loved him.

The force holding him down was all-powerful, like trying to swim up a waterfall. He was battered at every twist and turn, chilled in reality, and almost drowned in his sorrows, but his last unspoken promise kept him going. He wouldn't let Yuu down, he couldn't let Yuu down, not now, not after everything he had failed to do for him already. There was a lightning like he was reaching the top of a dark pool and seeing the sun through the undulating waves.

The closer he got to the light, the more pronounced the pain in his shoulder was, the more he resented himself for everything that he had done in his life, the more he wanted to return. It would be so simple now, to just let go. If he just let go, everything would be so simple, he could make his own reality where everything went perfectly, he and Yuu could stay together forever, they could run away together, just like they had wanted when they were kids.

Finally, he reached the light, His shoulders blazing with pain, and he saw the destruction that he had wrought. The world was real, and he knew it to be real because there was no way his mind could conjure up such an atrocity. The ceiling had fallen in, two people lay dead or dying from large wounds, and others lay strewn across the floor or limp. Some cried over dead bodies, their tears would do nothing for them now.

He collapsed with the pain in his lungs, one felt like it was filled with blood, the other was heaving. The back of his shoulder was a white-hot pain, and it felt like something was dragging on the ground, but it was still part of him. His body caved in over the cold, limp body of Yuu. His arms were deadened with the weight of his friend. He barely had enough strength to lift his head, and when he did, the Hell was still there.

There was a man who was standing over him, his sword to the back of his neck. People looked at him with varying degrees of fury, pity, and relief that he had fallen. Satisfaction in his pain.

None of them had realized that he wasn't whatever he had been but mere seconds ago, that he wasn't whatever had wrought this destruction. Three figures stood in his path, they had raised themselves from the grief of losing a teammate, and now stood wiping away tears and standing with resolve.

Mika heard a slight _pop_ and a white tiger was bounding towards him, behind that, he saw the slight movement of the three people, moving in practiced unison. He raised his head as he felt the pressure of the tiger's impact.

He lowered his head onto Yuu's as the first blade removed one shoulder.

He closed his eyes as the blade that had been at his neck bit deep into his back.

He placed his lips on the cold forehead that laid underneath him as the shot pierced his heart.

Mika could feel the warm blood rushing out of his body, his fingers getting colder and colder as his toes got colder and colder. His heart beat slower and slower, his lungs didn't fill as they once were. With his last strength, he raised his head and looked into the light of the sun, whispering one last phrase to the world.

"Thank You"

"Thank You."

Mika had thanked them for killing him.

Usually, that's not the reaction that you get after taking a life.

He had been his real self there at the end, it had taken Yoichi a few moments to realize and in those moments, he had lost the opportunity to save a life. A life that had caused so much destruction; but it was still a life nonetheless.

But maybe it was a good thing. There was no way that Mika would have been able to continue living as he was. The humans would fear him as a vampire, and the vampires would shun him as a Seraph. There was no place in the world for him now.

Yoichi looked back on the bodies of his fallen comrades. There was Kimizuki, laying in the rubble with the bloody shirt pressed against his chest. If you removed the bloodied shirt, it almost looked as if he were simply sleeping. It appeared he was simply a Sleeping Beauty, waiting for his kiss.

Mitsuba, laying on the flat ground, her mouth slightly open and tinged with the color red. Her hair was in tangles around her face, and her jacket was torn open. He could see the bloodstain that her body had created when she had been dragged across the floor.

And Yuu. Mika had collapsed on top of him in his final moments, so his body was slightly obscured. But he could still see the gray pallor skin and his raven colored hair. Yoichi could see the cuts on his arms and legs, the wounds inflicted on him during his time in the red room. But worst of all was his smile. Yuu had kept his final smile on his lips even after death, it was like he wanted everyone to know that he was happy now that he had passed.

All of them looked so serene where they laid, their bodies were illuminated by the gaping hole in the ceiling, with the sun high. With the dust and debris still in the air, all those particles caught the light and it seemed so cliché that they all landed on the bodies, but that was what happened.

Yoichi almost didn't want to ruin the perfection of them, but he knew he couldn't just leave them there. He walked past the fallen Mitsuba, the hole in her chest not disguised by the jacket she wore. He walked to Kimizuki, his lips slightly parted, and his eyes still open. The white shirt Yoichi had used to try and stop his bleeding turned red on his chest.

Yoichi felt a dampness on his cheeks as he stared at the body that had loved him and he had been too oblivious to realize it or admit to himself that he had loved him just as much. He cursed himself for being dense, for being too weak, for giving up, for trying to be something that he wasn't. He fell to his knees, probably scratching them in the process, but he couldn't be bothered at the moment. He placed his head on the chest of the pink haired man, gripping the bloodied shirt between his hands in frustration.

That was how he let himself cry. He wept on Kimizuki's body, the one place that he had consolation and confidence. He grabbed Kimizuki's limp hand within his own, trying to draw confidence from it.

His grief was interrupted by a horrendous cracking and crashing sound that shook the entire room. When he looked up, Yoichi noticed a _huge_ rock falling from the ceiling. It crashed down on the other side of the room, but it still caused a minor earthquake that set off a chain reaction of more falling from the ceiling.

Without thinking, Yoichi grabbed Kimizuki's body and maneuvered it so it was over his shoulder and just ran. Looking between the rubble on the floor and the rocks falling from the ceiling, Yoichi was able to make it safely to the edge of the room, almost dying three times from falling rocks.

Looking back, he saw that Shinoa was having problems doing the same thing that Yoichi had just done. He dropped Kimizuki's body as quickly and carefully as he could and ran back to help her with Mitsuba. Hurdling over the debris from other rocks was getting more difficult to do now that more rocks had fallen, and he knew that it would only get more and more difficult as time went on.

He swung Mitsuba's body over his shoulder, just as he had done with Kimizuki, but easier, and gave Shinoa a shove to get her running. He tried to follow the path that she took, but it was harder when you were carrying a body over your shoulder. Before long, Shinoa took a considerable lead over Yoichi, nimbly jumping from rock to rock and never losing her footing on the rubble. He followed in her footsteps and leaped on the rocks she leaped onto, trusting in his own sense of balance to keep him and Mitsuba off the floor, because he knew if he fell, it would be death for him.

Miraculously, he made it to the entrance of the room, where he had placed Kimizuki without falling, or dropping Mitsuba's body. Shinoa was there, her hands on her knees, panting. Her face was red with exertion and her legs wobbly from being jarred on the rocks. Yoichi was no better off, the energy required to carry two people across the treacherous terrain was more than he had planned for that day.

Unceremoniously, Yoichi placed Mitsuba in Shinoa's arms, knowing that they couldn't stay here for long. Shinoa clung to the body like a lifeline, clinging on and squeezing her eyes shut against the tears that threatened to fall. In the end, she failed and they fell whether she wished them or not.

Yoichi hoisted the body of the man whom he loved and placed his hand on Shinoa's shoulder. She had tears unshed in her eyes as she wordlessly looked up at him, holding his gaze for only a second before she looked back down to the girl in her arms hesitating a second before she nodded, they needed to get out of here.

Together, they stood and looked back, Guren and Shinya were still in the room, but they were nowhere to be seen and could make it out on their own. Turning away from the tomb that held his friend, he lifted Shinoa's arm and together they ran away, holding their loved ones close as they ran through the city, dodging the vampires around corners and keeping as silent as they could.

Left, right, right, left, straight, left, and another right. On and on the maze went, Shinoa leading the way until they came upon a gaping hole in the wall. The tension in her shoulders fading as she sprinted through the opening, Yoichi close behind her.

They ran until their legs ached and then ran even farther, their breath grating against their throats, puffing into existence as condensation and they still ran on. It had been sunny when they left, but now all they could see was the night sky and their feet grew number as they ran.

They ran until they couldn't run anymore, when they stumbled over their own two feet more often than not. They ran until they collapsed and still they tried to run. Their legs burned and their throat was raw, there wasn't a part of them that didn't ache when they could no longer stand, and their tears had been hidden away by the cover of trees that they had pulled themselves to.

It was there that they slept, the bodies of their friends close by and protected by the magic of their demons to ward off the creatures of the night.

They slept through the day and awoke at twilight, no words were spoken but they both knew what they needed to do. They gathered sticks and branches, brambles and leaves, the mountain of detritus grew and grew until they could no longer see by the moon. With as much care as they could, they lifted the bodies of their fallen friends onto the makeshift pyre and they lit it using the sparks of two rocks.

It was not a funeral that they believed Kimizuki and Mitsuba deserved, but it was private, intimate, and somber. It was then that they finally let their emotions show, they cried until there were no tears left in their bodies, they were choked with emotions and they cried on, screams of anguish that could no longer be heard filled the night and they howled like the wolves.

Shinya stared at Guren, waiting for the other to make a move. Guren's body was tense and drenched in sweat from what had just happened. His breathing was ragged and the area around his eyes was red and angry as if he had been crying. He had cuts all over his body where red leaked through the tears in his clothes.

It pained Shinya to see Guren in such obvious pain, but yet pretend that he was perfectly fine. Guren was just standing there, unmoving as if the world around him wasn't falling apart. Shinya started towards him, his characteristic smile somewhat forced, but he marched to the black haired man anyways.

"Hey! Guren! What do you say to getting out of here?" Shinya said, his carefree confidence evident in his voice as he walked up. However, as soon as the words were out of his mouth he stopped, Mahiru-no-yo pressed right to his throat. Shinya feared to breathe and swallow because it only pressed the blade closer to his airway.

"I would absolutely _love_ to get out of this damned broken body," Guren spoke with his own voice, but the words coming out were not his. They were more sinister and darker despite sounding virtually the same. "Thank you for asking, Shinya, my dear. However, I believe that it cannot be arranged no matter what I wish."

Shinya felt his chest tighten as a black smoke unraveled from the sword, it was the same as when Guren unleashed his power on the students to see who could persevere against unadulterated power. Only this time, it was aimed at him, not an entire classroom full of kids, it was aimed at one person.

The smoke coiled around Shinya's feet, growing taller and taller as more and more smoke emanated off of the cursed weapon. Shinya knew he should move, he _needed_ to move, but he couldn't force his muscles to obey, he couldn't force his body to acknowledge the danger to his well-being because this was, after all, Guren. The man that he had spent many a night in bed with. This was the man that he had given himself to, his heart and body unconditionally. There was no way that such a man could ever betray him like this.

But this wasn't Guren. This wasn't the man that had made him feel like he was the most beautiful man alive. This wasn't the man that could convey anything and everything he felt through the simple touching of two lips. This wasn't the man that he had stared at from his side of the bed after there from his side of the bed. This man was… he was _cold_.

The black mist coiled around him like some snake, that got tighter and tighter the more it constricted around him. As he looked closer, he could see the smoke dancing around Guren, forming mesmerizing designs. Guren hadn't moved since he had raised his sword, his face remained neutral with a little bit of a smirk on his lips.

"G-Guren…? What are you doing? Come on. Let's go home." Shinya tried one of his award-winning smiles that could put anyone at ease. The sword pressed further against his throat, breaking the skin ever so slightly.

"Oh, you poor, poor thing. Can't you realize? Guren isn't here anymore. It's only me now. So, how do you feel about the two people that you loved in one body?" Guren's face broke into a demented smile and the pressure on his throat released, but the shadows had reached his chest and by then, he knew there was no escape.

"Guren! Guren, can you hear me!" Shinya's voice was frantic, the smoke was steadily climbing and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. "Let him go, Mahiru. You had your chance and you destroyed it. Let me talk to him, Mahiru!"

The demon smiled once more, turning Guren's face into some garish representation of what he had been. The smoke was at Shinya's chin now and trying to work its way into his mouth, his nose, his eyes. He started coughing, the smoke burning on its way down his throat even when he tried to keep it closed.

"Guren, please you have to listen to me! Mahiru. This is Mahiru! I know you wouldn't do this to me… Guren. Guren… please" The smoke was beginning to overpower his senses, the room was getting blurry. He was beginning to sound like a broken record. "Guren… Guren… Guren, please… You… you wouldn't… Guren… Guren please…"

The strength left his body when he slumped into exhaustion and the demon stood over him. _Look at that, Guren. Look what you just did to your love. Look at the betrayal on his face as I crush his life before you._ Mahiru spoke in her mind. _This is what happens to everyone that you will ever love_. Mahiru raised her boot to crush the silver-haired man, but the serenity that was on his face stopped her before she could actually do it. She could feel Guren pounding away at the cage that she had trapped him in, and his anguish pounding against the force that she had put up.

She decided to take the path that would ultimately cause more suffering; she just walked away.

Shinya awoke to chains around his wrist, his ankles, and his waist. The cold metal completely trapped him as he looked at his surroundings.

He was in a cold, dark room that smelled strongly of blood and sweat, there was no other person in that room that he could feel, but he still knew there was going to be someone around just in case he somehow escaped.

He pulled at the chains that surrounded him, feeling them cut into his skin and muscle, cold and unmoving. The chains gave no ground to him whatsoever, they never moved except when they wanted to tighten around his wrists.

Suddenly the light flashed on and he could see where he was. He was back in the red room. But this time, he wasn't on the cross that he had been on before, he was on a cold metal slab, like one they would use for autopsies. As his eyes began to focus, he could see a lilac-haired man striding towards him, a clipboard in hand and a smile on his face.

"The Hyakuya orphanage." The vampire said, still smiling, his voice booming off the walls. "The Hyakuya project was to take children that had been abandoned by their parents and transform them into weapons. Children under the age of ten were commonly used for these purposes because they were the most impressionable. The project went on for years until they finally got close to their much-desired weapon when a virus swept through the world. Killing everyone over the age of thirteen. You know this story, do you not?"

Without waiting for a reply from Shinya, the vampire went on, "What the humans wanted was an abomination. They wanted something that could give and take life just like breathing, and the vampires have stopped the full monstrosity from being produced, but there are some that managed to slip through our net and now roam the Earth as somewhat normal people. My question now is, what would happen if we tried the experiments on an adult?"

The vampire had walked to the corner where it uncovered a small set of surgical utensils. "Would the body accept the treatments? Would it reject them fully and completely? Would it treat the experiment like a drug, something to get addicted to and attached to where if it goes without treatment for a while, the subject just explodes? These are all amazing and genuine questions don't you think? And the only way to answer questions is through testing."

A wide smile spread across the vampire's face as he said his next words. "Hello, my name is Ferid Báthory, and you are going to be the answer to all of my questions. Together, we are going to have so much fun."


End file.
